Up to now, I've been in the "Apple wants to do the right thing" camp. But my viewpoint is starting to change.
Here's how I spotted a $5M/year scam on the App Store, in 5 minutes flat:
First, the ratings of this app: 4.6 stars, with over 83,146 ratings, and a glowing 5-star "featured" review:

★★★★★
Astronomy fun
I’ve been using the app for a few months now and decided to add some things to the review. First of all it definitely lives up to my expectations even this far down the line! The daily updates astronomy news is what makes me come back for more and in my opinion what makes this app stand out from the rest of the stargazing apps out there. That doesn’t mean the stargazing functions are not great, because they are, it just means that it news section is my favorite part. Ok the rest of the text is from my original review. Lovely app that really does what it advertises. If you are looking for something to keep you busy and at they same time learn from, this app is perfect! I have absolutely no idea how they do it, but just point your phone up the sky and move it around to identify Stars, planets, satellites constellations and other awesome things. While previously, you could only analyze constellations with charts, maps, telescopes or pay a visit to the nearest planetarium today you can use this mobile app to uncover a vast amount of information about what’s happening overhead at any given time! Simply amazing how far along the technology has come. Not only can you do that with this app, but you also get daily updated astronomy news to keep you updated what’s going on in our wonderful universe. Definitely a must have.

Now let's slide over to the next review in the carousel:

★★☆☆☆
Not what it advertises
Have to hit continue three times upon opening app. The third screen is Reg update screen with a small option to “restore” at the bottom of the screen. I accidentally hit continue the upteenth time I opened the app and instantly received email stating it was going to charge me $9.99 a week. No thanks.Point screen at one part of th sky infront of my house says one thing then point it to the back of the house and ironically it says the same. Somehow the sun is up in the dead of night and should be shinning at me through the pitch black sky. I’d post photos if this review had an option or I could send to admin IF I had the option but can’t find support anywhere.

Hmm... maybe that was an outlier. Let's check the next one:

★☆☆☆☆
Have to resubscribe every time you use it
Very disappointed. I signed up to use it and it was a decent tool the first time I used it, but when I went to use it a second time (on the same iPhone 11 I bought it and used it on the first time, it made me sign up again as if I had no subscription. It worked fine the second time, but still I had to take the time to resubcribe. Then, the third time I went to use it it did the same thing and I didn’t want to take the time to sign up again, plus I wanted to check my iTunes account to make sure I wasn’t paying multiple subscription fees for the same app, so I didn’t use it that night. The fourth and fifth time, the same thing. Very poorly designed in that way. I should be able to sign up for the recurring subscription, as it states it is, and every time I open the app on my phone it should recognize me as a paid subscriber and let me use the app. What a pain in the ____!!

Ok, this definitely warrants to keep scrolling:

★☆☆☆☆
Seems like a monetary vampire app that’s more advertisement than actual app
I installed this to track stars not for the app to immediately try to sell me on a better version of the app, AND a premium service with reoccurring billing immediately after opening. I naturally wasn’t impressed or lured in, but the real problem was the ad in the app wouldn’t let me actually use it until I tapped a tiny bit of text at the bottom. Please, stop doing this with free apps. Now I DEFINITELY don’t want anything to do with the paid app or the recurring service. It’s probably further riddled with micro-transactions, which is a problem I see more and more lately. Since the app asked me to rate it twice in the first ten minutes of use, here you go. Also the compass is bad and inaccurate. Looks like your advertisement didn’t work....

Now I'm starting to see a pattern here:

★☆☆☆☆
I’d give zero starts if could!
First of all took forever to even get to use the app because of all the garbage up selling. Then had to sing up for a trial to even use it since they demand $9.99 month before even using to see if it’s worth it. It’s not and within 5 mins I closed out and cancelled trial. It’s literally the only trial I’ve closed out that fast.I point to the sky and it shows the moon and some other stars that I absolutely wasn’t even pointing the phone at. Not even close to it. Then I go to a different location and screen doesn’t change at all. You have to manually move the screen and then you have no idea what location those images are actually at since screen doesn’t lock onto what it’s actually looking at.I can use a star map in a book and get better help than this garbage app. Don’t waste your time or money on this at all.

Last one:

★☆☆☆☆
Useless even if you pay
I thought this would’ve been a great app. Unfortunately, even after paying it’s pretty outrageous cost, it still could not identify a constellation. In fact, it left it up to me to identify ANYTHING. The App was perfectly happy when I tagged Jupiter as the North Star (I am in Southern California). Other ‘free’ apps work significantly better. Don’t spend your monthly “subscription” (what is a subscription here? Does our astronomical view change that much each month!? For a monthly fee why can I not get an approximate daily view of where the ISS is? Or the new NeoWISE comet? Or show me a constellation, or a planet? ) This app did absolutely ZERO of any of these things. I got a better view when I pointed my App and Camera at my lawn ..😢

Let's dig in with AppFigures and look at the star breakdown of just the reviews - there's only 835 of them (!):
★★★★★ 109
★★★★☆ 6
★★★☆☆ 9
★★☆☆☆ 31
★☆☆☆☆ 680
Their average stars?
1.6 stars
ONE. POINT. SIX.
In these reviews, people are desperately trying to warn others not to make the same mistake they did:

★☆☆☆☆
DO NOT PURCHASE
This app charges a ridiculous amount of money to use it ten dollars a week ****** Definitely not worth that much money it really should be illegal!!!!!!!!!!!!!************

★☆☆☆☆
PREDATORY COMPANY
PREDATORY COMPANY - DO NOT DOWNLOAD - THEY WILL ROB YOU

★☆☆☆☆ Thieves Stay Away
I downloaded this app and canceled my subscription within 5 minutes and guess what they charged me 9.99 Surprised Apple is providing platform to this thieves.

★☆☆☆☆
Hard to believe these reviews are genuine
I don’t write reviews, but this one warrant one. This one has all the signs of a scam. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt I am. [...] Apple should be worried since this app has over 70k of 5 star

★☆☆☆☆
BAIT AND SWITCH
This app requires a subscription to use at all. There’s no trial/test/preview, just enter your credit card details. Just charge for the app, not this bait and switch. Is apple reading this!? Terrible experience. Ffs

Let's look at their ratings over time. Blue line is new positive ratings per day. This is a completely unnatural pattern here, when overlaid with their download numbers.
The featured 5-star review is there because the scammers made sure to also long press on it and mark it as "Helpful", alongside submitting all their fake, bought ratings.
This scam has been operating from Indonesia for years, although "operating" is giving it too much credit. The app was last updated in 2019, so they are literally sitting and collecting the stolen money.
When you download and open the app, you HAVE to start a $10/week subscription to proceed. UNREAL.
Apple is doing nothing. In fact, they're even sending the scammers a cool $400k per month.
The scam: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/star-gazeid1474038335
Their "website": http://textystories.com
Another image from their support website reads: "Life is wonderful, let our games be part of it!"
This is some utter BS. Honest developers are getting fooled by all sides. I am furious.

Is Facebook's moat widening or shrinking? My unorganized thoughts, do you see any flaws?

Hardware:
I think the smartest defensive move Facebook can make at this stage is doing whatever it takes to become a major player in consumer hardware. Even if they breakeven, or lose money on this endeavor it can be treated as user acquisition costs for the people who wouldn't make a Facebook account otherwise, or as a way to make Facebook accounts as sticky as possible to protect against people leaving the platform. Anecdotally, I've seen people that have preached "Facebook is evil" for years, say that not they will not ever delete their newly open accounts because if they did their Oculus hardware wouldn't work, and they'd lose all of their purchases.
Facebook is dominating the growing VR market with an iron fist. Non-advertising revenue grew 156% in Q4, and IDC estimates 3 million Quest 2's were sold in Q4. Oculus Quest 2 has stellar reviews, despite the mandatory Facebook account for use. Facebook's VR devices also use Messenger for messages, Workplace for enterprise, and I believe Facebook Horizon (which is integrated with the FB app) will eventually be the place users load into initially, and launch third party apps from.
High investment cost makes it unlikely that other social media company can compete with Facebook in hardware (especially AVR), and this should give Facebook a permanent utility advantage against its peers. The companies that could compete, big tech, and gaming giants seem unwilling to make the investment to compete. I think they're aware that Facebook is completely fine making $0 to be dominant in the VR space, and that's scared them away in addition to facts like VR being a relatively small market for them.Apple is rumored to be considering a release of a Quest-like headset in later 2022, but the device will be priced far above $1000 according to Mark Gurman.
VR is where I'm most confident in Facebook's ability to achieve its hardware dreams, but consumer AR is also an area where its only competition in terms of investments made is Apple. So I think their chances there are decent too. Facebook is working on long term AR glasses, but is also releasing Smartglasses in collaboration with Luxottica (Ray-Ban and Oakley) this year. There's also Facebook's line of smart video chatting devices, Portal.
Traditionally Listed Moats
Intangible assets consisting of the vast amount of data users have shared: sustained and growing, but people are also sharing things about themselves on other apps increasingly.
Growth of users means network effects still growing
Number and diversity of advertisers, and advertiser verticals still growing
Competition?
There is rising social media competition, and always the threat of new entrants. That being said, competition seems to carve out niches, so they aren't competing as directly as we'd think. The closest thing to Facebook the Blue app, for connecting with family and friends is Instagram. Competing apps can have similar features, but the main utilities are different. Tik Tok is mostly a short video app, Youtube is a long video app, Twitter is a breaking news app, Reddit is a communities app, etc. Facebook's utility first and foremost is connecting with REAL people who's identity you can verify, like friends and family. Like previously mentioned, the closest competitor is Instagram.
Messaging
There can be lack of differentiation here, but Messenger tied to Facebook, Instagram, Portal and Oculus. I suspect it'll be tied to future hardware as well. Whatsapp has network effects, and may one day have lock-in comparable to Chinese super apps (at least that's what's being worked towards). iMessage is the the main competitor here, because they are automatically installed on every iPhone
Misc
I think Facebook Marketplace, the Craigslist alternative benefits greatly from Facebook using real identities, and is an overall better product. If you want to sell something locally FB Marketplace is the best option, and I think it's a strong reason to have an account. Usage of Marketplace is growing.
The integration with Jio in India, and importance in Indian society is worth mentioning for Whatsapp.
Facebook Groups, have competition in the form of Reddit, and Discord. The edge here will be real identities, and the tools they are building to make moderating a Facebook group profitable (subscriptions, etc)
The only other pure "Real Identity social network" is Linkedin is a professional network.
Problems
No young people use Facebook? This seems to be a US centric cliche, as Facebook is popular among all age demographics around the world. According to Pew Research 76% of people 18-24 use Facebook, only superseded by Youtube. For teens in 2018, 51% of teens used Facebook which is good in my opinion for a social network not targeted to teens like Tik Tok. I personally think the utility of Facebook kicks in after college age, but regardless if there is a problem, I think the cure can be User Acquisition through hardware.
Chance of mass exodus? again, mitigated by the lock-in of hardware, but this is a concern of mine based on Facebook's reputation. 1. Privacy, there is truth to some criticism here, because Facebook's business model does depend on data collection, and in many ways is opposed to strict definitions of privacy, but much of it is also pushed by myth like "Facebook sells data". Facebook has the same business model as its advertising funded peers, but perception is what matters, and Facebook is losing the perception battle. 2. Politics, In my opinion has been half of Facebook's reputation problem. Recently Zuck said that they are trying to make Facebook less political by not recommending political groups, and lowering reach on political posts. Also, Donald Trump being gone should make the next 4 years less politically controversial. Since Facebook is in the business of advertising, and people can mostly say what they want, there's always the small chance of a #DeleteFacebook movement reaching critical mass based on these themes.
Being banned in countries? Mitigated by becoming a hardware player, but this is an unlikely outcome for many reasons that my hands are too tired to elaborate on.
Apple's privacy stance and iOS 14: The hit to revenue estimates I've seen are between 1%-7%, but it could also be a boost to revenue since third party signals being reduced will give the edge to whoever has the best first party signals, we'll have wait to see. This is something to watch closely, but transferring third party data into first party data by having ecommerce on the platform through initiatives like Facebooks shops, and Instagram shopping can be the cure. Also, being in control of hardware mitigates this risk
Antitrust- generally not concerned
Privacy as a theme that is adversarial to advertising - slightly concerned but I don't think ad funded business models are going anywhere, many people like not paying for things
Might add more to this later...

Is Facebook's moat widening or shrinking? My unorganized thoughts, do you see any flaws?

I think WSB is sleeping on a huge opportunity in Apple this month. Here’s why.

TLDR: Due to a confluence of factors (none of which are technical analysis), I believe a perfect storm is likely forming for a monster, historic ER occurring sometime in late January. The initial main factor for this was that COVID issues were causing a delay in the iPhone 12 launch, pushing it into to this quarter, but that led me to discover numerous other factors now making up my thesis. I believe not only will earnings grow, but the multiple could even expand. How to play it: calls dated end of Jan or mid Feb.

Analysis:

Happy hangover day, fellow autists. I believe opportunities are rare to know when an ER is going to blow it out of the water by enough to overcome IV crush based on more than just a hunch, and when they occur once or twice per year you should swing big. When I play earnings releases, I’m almost always just a seller of spreads so that I can profit off of theta/IV crush surrounding the ER (theta gang always wins). This time however, I’ve bought outright calls. Here is what I’m seeing with Apple:

The iPhone 12 delay could mean huge YoY comparisons.

What kicked all this off was that two months ago I realized we could be heading for huge numbers this quarter due to an atypical delay in the launch of the newest iPhone. Typically new iPhones are announced in mid-September with preorders beginning immediately and shipments beginning before the end of the month. However this year because of COIVD delays the launch date got pushed into October. The iPhone 12 preorders began mid-October with shipments a week later, and the iPhone 12 mini and Max began preorders November 6. And that means no sales of the new models counted in the quarter ended Sept. 30 (Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter)as they usually do. This year all of those opening day sales have fallen into the upcoming fiscal Q1, setting up a potentially huge quarter in sales and making for easy YoY comparisons right out of the gate. Here’s a Fortune article on the delay of the launch.

The “super cycle” rumors appear to be true.

As a lover of new tech, I always have to remind myself that the average person doesn’t care about incremental new features as much as I do. So when I heard rumors earlier this year that Apple could be facing a “super cycle” of upgrades due to 5G, I was skeptical. How much does the average person really care about spotty 5G service enough to jump on a new iPhone? But based on reports starting to come out, those rumors appear to be correct. I’ve seen a few articles suggesting a super cycle not seen since the iPhone 6.
Here’s a Yahoo Finance article on Wedbush’s analysis.
Here are some notable quotes from that article since I know we don’t read around here.

"Based on our recent Asia checks we believe the supply chain is anticipating low to mid 90 million iPhone unit builds … a roughly 35% increase from our original and Street forecasts," says Ives, who covers AAPL stock for Wedbush.
Compare that to the firm's expectations for iPhone 12 unit sales over time. Three months ago, Wedbush expected 65 million to 70 million unit builds for the December quarter; it raised its outlook to 75 million units in late October; and in mid-December, it set a "stretch goal" in the mid-80 million range.
Wall Street broadly sees AAPL selling 217 million iPhones in the company's fiscal 2021, but Wedbush's bull case is "north of 240 million units (250 million could be in the cards – an eye popping figure)" that would easily surpass the 231 million units the company sold in its fiscal 2015.
"We have not seen a launch uptrend such as this in a number of years for Apple and the only iPhone trajectory similar would be the iPhone 6 in 2014 based on our analysis.".

Here is an AppleInsider article, although it quotes the same research at Wedbush. Notable quote:

That bump in production would represent a 30% year-over-year increase in smartphone models produced, and is also well ahead of current Wall Street expectations, Ives wrote.

It’s anecdotal, but I personally skipped the iPhone 11 upgrade because I was perfectly content with my XS Max, however I did buy the 12 Pro Max.

The iPhone 12 sales mix:

It’s not just that phone sales will be up on the iphone 12 launch, it’s the mix within those sales. Typically when Apple launches phones they sell more of the of the entry level new phones than they do the premium, because the total addressable market is bigger. That doesn’t appear to be the case this time. As early as September people were reporting that Apple was making more higher end iPhone 12 models than entry-level handsets anticipating a shift in demand, and they appear to have been correct. Last year the entry level iPhone 11s outsold the premium iPhone 11s by a three to one margin. This year almost immediately after launch people were reporting that the premium iPhone 12s were selling as much as the entry models. Since then, there have been reports trickling out that the premium iPhone 12s appear to actually be outselling the entry level versions.

Apple sold out of nearly everything they make for Christmas.

See further below for one of the reasons this may have happened, in both my “macro” and “risks” sections.
Apple introduced a slough of new products from iMacs to watches this year, and they sold out of all of them. The list of sold-out products at Christmas included the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max; iPad, iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad Mini; MacBook Air and Pro; iMac and iMac Pro; HomePod mini, and AirPods Max. Here’s a Barron’s article mentioning the sell outs.
Apple wearables, I would argue, are now what economists call Veblen goods. These are unique products where the demand curve actually increases as the price increases. This can happen in goods such as wine, where the consumer lacks the knowledge in how to evaluate the product so they take pricing as a signal of quality. But another reason you can get that skewed demand curve is if the product conveys status. One example of this is sports cars. You can buy cars with 90% of the performance of the ultra top end cars for 30% of the price, but that’s not the point of owning them, is it? How often are you really out at the track? Lambo isn’t in competition with $50k sports cars. They could raise the price $50k per car and people who can afford them would just want them more. Louis Vuitton bags and $50,000 Birkin purses are more examples. In fact with Birkin they not only constantly raise prices, they forbid people from buying them. You have to spend a lot of money on other lower tier products before you’re “allowed” to even buy a Birkin bag. This just makes new money women want them even more.
Those are dramatic examples of course and Apple isn’t behaving that way, but Apple just introduced very overpriced, new over-the-ear headphones which cost almost twice as much as the leading competitor, and yet...Apple sold out of every single color in the first two weeks and hit a three month waiting list by Christmas on a product that I would assume due to its high pricing has very fat margins. Apple charging twice as much makes them more appealing, not less, because wearables are worn and thus seen by your peers (and the opposite sex).

The Twitter rumor mill is reporting parts moving at a brisk pace

I can’t track down the things I’ve read here and there on Twitter and I’m starting to run out of steam here, so you may have to do some searching on your own, but people who usually track movement of parts through the companies forming Apple’s supply chain and normally have a good track record with their reports have reported that parts are moving through the chain at a very brisk pace. This is addressed some in the reports on the iPhone supply chain in my earlier links.

App sales are crushing it.

Thanks probably in part to quarantine, app sales have been crushing it and grew ~35% this December compared to ~17% the prior year, meaning sales have grown at twice the pace.

Reoccurring revenue bundle numbers will be announced

The biggest thing I’ve learned from 2020 is that nothing matters more to the market than the narrative surrounding the reoccurring revenue bundle...aka subscriptions. A company announces its cutting its dividend, but then tells you that’s because its going to pour all that money into boosting its subscriptions? The stock skyrockets. Look at Disney. ATT may be able to pull this off as well if it can convince people of that narrative with WarneHBO max and cut its dividend to pour it into content, but that’s a big “if” for them.
Apple launched their new reoccurring revenue bundle this year. I personally signed up for the premium tier and now owe Apple $30 per month for the rest of my life. I was already paying them to backup my phone to the cloud, and now their bundle has thrown me into Apple Music, Apple TV+, etc. I am firmly entrenched in the Apple universe whether I like it or not.
It is these reoccurring revenue numbers that offer the possibility of earnings multiple expansion.

RISKS

Are sellouts due to high demand, or due to COVID-related production problems? I don’t know. Based on the reports I’ve read, some of which have been linked earlier in my post, it sounds like everything is running full speed in China and the supply chain is running at near or above a record clip. One possible risk is that this was not the case earlier this year and thus Apple sold out of things because they hadn’t produced enough heading into Christmas. I personally believe that production may have taken a huge hit early in the calendar year, but by mid to late 2020 this was no longer a significant issue. I also believe that even if sales have taken a slight hit due to production, the market wouldn’t really care. Markets are forward looking. They know COVID has impacted things globally, and even if Apple reports sales difficulties they will be paired with significantly increased guidance for Q2. New reports have suggested that Apple has had to increase its iPhone production plans for 2021 by 20-30% because of strong demand An announcement like that is not a recipe for a stock crash.
Macro factors causing a crash. A lot of people around here appear to be scared of an impending crash. This seems to be based on the simple idea that stocks have run up a lot and therefore must crash. A reversion to the mean is imminent. I don’t see it that way and I think the economy is more complex than that. Just because something has gone up a lot does not mean it’s going to crash. People have been warning of a California real estate crash for 70 years.
I’m a little bit older than you guys (by probably about 10-15 years) and I can remember the market frenzy of the dot.com boom. A lot of people were saying the same thing then, and while they were ultimately proven right, they were very early. I remember seeing another year to year and a half of enormous gains after hearing all those warnings. Of course the problem with musical chairs is that we never know when the music will stop, but I would argue if anything stocks are roughly fairly valued, not dangerously overvalued.
As we go into 2021, we face the following conditions: a vaccine roll out that sometime between now and late ‘21 will lead us into a v-shaped recovery. The Krugman argument for this vision, and The Bloomberg argument for this vision. We also just had the Fed reaffirm 0% interest rates and the continuation of QE. Add to all of that very easy YoY earnings comps for the first two quarters of this year and this is not a recipe for a crash, it’s a recipe for a steady market melt up. Where are the rich supposed to put all their money in a 0% interest rate environment? 0% pushes up the value of all asset classes, and this is especially true of real estate and stonks. Generally speaking, predicting macro economic movements is a losing game, but all of those things combined with the easy YoY comps means I don’t feel the need to be concerned of an impending correction for at least the next two quarters.
A much smaller factor but still a factor, I have seen it suggested that Apple will be among the larger beneficiaries of the stimulus checks going out, although those have not started rolling out until just now so that may have an impact on Q2 if any.
Bad subscription numbers
If subscriptions to Apple One flopped, this could significantly overshadow sales and earnings numbers. I personally feel Apple isn’t likely to seriously miscalculate predictions on a subscription bundle because they have their market dialed in, but I don’t know that for sure.
Sales could have cratered in October
Sales often drop a little in the weeks preceding a phone launch. What if phone sales tanked during the delays waiting for an iPhone 12? That could be bad. I’m encouraged by the fact that iPhone 11 models appeared to still be having good sales numbers when the iPhone 12 was launched (see links earlier in this post), but I don’t really know what October sales look like.
COVID could have tanked all phone sales.
This report says all phone activations generally tanked 23% on Christmas Day. Two thoughts I have on that, that number is for all phone activations, not just iPhones. And two, that’s just for Christmas Day itself. There could be a wide array of reasons activations were down on that one day. To counter that, this report says the iPhone was the best selling 5G phone, even in October despite the phone not launching until the second half of that month. Additionally that article mentions pent up demand for 5G apple phones that sales are likely to be strong going forward.

Technical Analysis

I don’t believe in technical analysis. Charts don’t know any of the things I just explained, and are therefore, in my opinion, useless to me. Maybe somebody has figured out a system for charts to predict the future, but I am not that person.

Price Target

I don’t pretend to know things like that.

Fun rumors

I’m not big on speculative rumors and momentum type plays, but if that’s your thing there are certainly rumors in the air. The most famous of which is the rumor that Apple is back to working seriously on an EV Car. Another is reports are just coming out in the last day or two that Apple is seeing new successes in developing foldable tech. Whether these things will impact the stock price isn’t really my cup of tea, but if it’s yours those are two things to consider.

Is my post an attempt at a WSB pump and dump?

I’m under no allusions that my own WSB post is going to alter the trajectory of a $2.25 trillion company in any meaningful way. That sort of thing may work on a post-IPO company that hasn’t had its lockup expiration yet and thus has a tiny float (aka PLTR or numerous other recent “to the moon” meme stocks) with limited float. (That’s not to say those aren’t great companies or great trades. I’m just sayin’).

My positions:

I’m more conservative than most of WSB. While I love this place with all my heart and love you guys for it, I believe risking it all to chase screenshot-worthy gains is moronic and not the path to building real, long-term wealth. Thus my positions are probably more conservative than you’d expect.
I have 20% of my net worth tied up in Apple via LEAPs. 9/16/2022 AAPL $87.50 calls. I consider this to be essentially stock I hold for the long term. Delta is approaching 1 anyway so they practically are stock. Sometime in the depths of March I loaded up on FAANG LEAPs with the intention of actually holding them for years and then converting to shares. Those LEAPs were a little OTM at the time I bought them. I have no interest in day trading my significant LEAP positions so that’s going to sit there for the next two years.
But I also have put an additional 15% of my net worth into short term calls on Apple to play the ER. I have Feb 19 $130 calls which were about 10-15% OTM at the time I bought them. They are currently ITM. I also have 1/29 $135s and 1/29 $141s.
This puts 35% of my net worth into Apple.

How to get rich

I intend to cash out my short term calls after the ER, and I don’t intend to reinvest or roll them out because I suspect Apple will be fully valued by then and there are better plays out there. I intend to keep my LEAPS because I bought those for the very long term and because at the very least I should hold them until March to hit the long term capital gains tax rate.
I intend to take my profits from the calls and push them into shorting NNOX and XPEV, both of which have significant lockup expirations coming in mid to late February which I believe will significantly impact the stock prices in the short term. I have no interest in shorting XPEV right now, because you guys are crazy as fuck and for all I know EV stonks could all run up another 50% in the next month. Right about the time the Apple ER hits should be perfect.

Criticism

If you think I’m wrong, I would strongly encourage you to comment. I don’t give a fuck about looking correct or saving face but I give many fucks about not losing money. If I’m wrong, I want to know it.

The Most Important Factor

This ain’t my first day around here, and I know that DD is absolutely useless without rocketships, therefore: APPLE TO THE 🌙 🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀.
Godspeed, fellow autists.

Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis

NEW INFO 5 Results from share redemption are posted. Less than .2% redeemed. Very bullish as investors are showing extreme confidence in the future of PLBY.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/playboy-mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-120000721.html
NEW INFO 4 Definitive Agreement to purchase 100% of Lovers brand stores announced 2/1.
https://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Playboy+%28MCAC%29+Confirms+Deal+to+Acquire+Lovers/17892359.html
NEW INFO 3 I bought more on the dip today. 5081 total. Price rose AH to $12.38 (2.15%)
NEW INFO 2 Here is the full webinar.
https://icrinc.zoom.us/rec/play/9GWKdmOYumjWfZuufW3QXpe_FW_g--qeNbg6PnTjTMbnNTgLmCbWjeRFpQga1iPc-elpGap8dnDv8Zww.yD7DjUwuPmapeEdP?continueMode=true&tk=lEYc4F_FkKlgsmCIs6w0gtGHT2kbgVGbUju3cIRBSjk.DQIAAAAV8NK49xZWdldRM2xNSFNQcTBmcE00UzM3bXh3AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA&uuid=WN_GKWqbHkeSyuWetJmLFkj4g&_x_zm_rtaid=kR45-uuqRE-L65AxLjpbQw.1611967079119.2c054e3d3f8d8e63339273d9175939ed&_x_zm_rhtaid=866
NEW INFO 1 Live merger webinar with PLBY and MCAC on Friday January 29, 2021 at 12:00 NOON EST link below
https://mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/press-release-details/2021/Playboy-Enterprises-Inc.-and-Mountain-Crest-Acquisition-Corp-Participate-in-SPACInsider-ICR-Webinar-on-January-29th-at-12pm-ET/default.aspx
Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis
!!!WARNING READING AHEAD!!! TL;DR at the end. It will take some time to sort through all the links and read/watch everything, but you should.
In the next couple weeks, Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp is taking Playboy public. The existing ticker MCAC will become PLBY. Special purpose acquisition companies have taken private companies public in recent months with great success. I believe this will be no exception. Notably, Playboy is profitable and has skyrocketing revenue going into a transformational growth phase.
Porn - First and foremost, let's talk about porn. I know what you guys are thinking. “Porno mags are dead. Why would I want to invest in something like that? I can get porn for free online.” Guess what? You are absolutely right. And that’s exactly why Playboy doesn’t do that anymore. That’s right, they eliminated their print division. And yet they somehow STILL make money from porn that people (see: boomers) pay for on their website through PlayboyTV, Playboy Plus, and iPlayboy. Here’s the thing: Playboy has international, multi-generational name recognition from porn. They have content available in 180 countries. It will be the only publicly traded adult entertainment (porn) company. But that is not where this company is going. It will help support them along the way. You can see every Playboy magazine through iPlayboy if you’re interested. NSFW links below:
https://www.playboy.com/
https://www.playboytv.com/
https://www.playboyplus.com/
https://www.iplayboy.com/
Gambling - Some of you might recognize the Playboy brand from gambling trips to places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Cancun, London or Macau. They’ve been in the gambling biz for decades through their casinos, clubs, and licensed gaming products. They see the writing on the wall. COVID is accelerating the transition to digital, application based GAMBLING. That’s right. What we are doing on Robinhood with risky options is gambling, and the only reason regulators might give a shit anymore is because we are making too much money. There may be some restrictions put in place, but gambling from your phone on your couch is not going anywhere. More and more states are allowing things like Draftkings, poker, state ‘lottery” apps, hell - even political betting. Michigan and Virginia just ok’d gambling apps. They won’t be the last. This is all from your couch and any 18 year old with a cracked iphone can access it. Wouldn’t it be cool if Playboy was going to do something like that? They’re already working on it. As per CEO Ben Kohn who we will get to later, “...the company’s casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth.” Honestly, I stopped researching Scientific Games' sports betting segment when I saw the word ‘omni-channel’. That told me all I needed to know about it’s success.
“Our SG Sports™ platform is an enhanced, omni-channel solution for online, self-service and retail fixed odds sports betting – from soccer to tennis, basketball, football, baseball, hockey, motor sports, racing and more.”
https://www.scientificgames.com/
https://www.microgaming.co.uk/
“This latter segment has become increasingly enticing for Playboy, and it said last week that it is considering new tie-ups that could include gaming operators like PointsBet and 888Holdings.”
https://calvinayre.com/2020/10/05/business/playboys-gaming-ops-could-get-a-boost-from-spac-purchase/
As per their SEC filing:
“Significant consumer engagement and spend with Playboy-branded gaming properties around the world, including with leading partners such as Microgaming, Scientific Games, and Caesar’s Entertainment, steers our investment in digital gaming, sports betting and other digital offerings to further support our commercial strategy to expand consumer spend with minimal marginal cost, and gain consumer data to inform go-to-market plans across categories.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tMDAA1
They are expanding into more areas of gaming/gambling, working with international players in the digital gaming/gambling arena, and a Playboy sportsbook is on the horizon.
https://www.playboy.com/read/the-pleasure-of-playing-with-yourself-mobile-gaming-in-the-covid-era
Cannabis - If you’ve ever read through a Playboy magazine, you know they’ve had a positive relationship with cannabis for many years. As of September 2020, Playboy has made a major shift into the cannabis space. Too good to be true you say? Check their website. Playboy currently sells a range of CBD products. This is a good sign. Federal hemp products, which these most likely are, can be mailed across state lines and most importantly for a company like Playboy, can operate through a traditional banking institution. CBD products are usually the first step towards the cannabis space for large companies. Playboy didn’t make these products themselves meaning they are working with a processor in the cannabis industry. Another good sign for future expansion. What else do they have for sale? Pipes, grinders, ashtrays, rolling trays, joint holders. Hmm. Ok. So it looks like they want to sell some shit. They probably don’t have an active interest in cannabis right? Think again:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/24/playboy-gets-serious-about-cannabis-law-reform-advocacy-with-new-partnership-grants/?sh=62f044a65cea
“Taking yet another step into the cannabis space, Playboy will be announcing later on Thursday (September, 2020) that it is launching a cannabis law reform and advocacy campaign in partnership with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Last Prisoner Project, Marijuana Policy Project, the Veterans Cannabis Project, and the Eaze Momentum Program.”
“According to information procured exclusively, the three-pronged campaign will focus on calling for federal legalization. The program also includes the creation of a mentorship plan, through which the Playboy Foundation will support entrepreneurs from groups that are underrepresented in the industry.” Remember that CEO Kohn from earlier? He wrote this recently:
https://medium.com/naked-open-letters-from-playboy/congress-must-pass-the-more-act-c867c35239ae
Seems like he really wants weed to be legal? Hmm wonder why? The writing's on the wall my friends. Playboy wants into the cannabis industry, they are making steps towards this end, and we have favorable conditions for legislative progress.
Don’t think branding your own cannabis line is profitable or worthwhile? Tell me why these 41 celebrity millionaires and billionaires are dummies. I’ll wait.
https://www.celebstoner.com/news/celebstoner-news/2019/07/12/top-celebrity-cannabis-brands/
Confirmation: I hear you. “This all seems pretty speculative. It would be wildly profitable if they pull this shift off. But how do we really know?” Watch this whole video:
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/playboy-ceo-telling-story-female-154907068.html
Man - this interview just gets my juices flowing. And highlights one of my favorite reasons for this play. They have so many different business avenues from which a catalyst could appear. I think paying attention, holding shares, and options on these staggered announcements over the next year is the way I am going to go about it. "There's definitely been a shift to direct-to-consumer," he (Kohn) said. "About 50 percent of our revenue today is direct-to-consumer, and that will continue to grow going forward.” “Kohn touted Playboy's portfolio of both digital and consumer products, with casino-style gaming, in particular, serving a crucial role under the company's new business model. Playboy also has its sights on the emerging cannabis market, from CBD products to marijuana products geared toward sexual health and pleasure.” "If THC does become legal in the United States, we have developed certain strains to enhance your sex life that we will launch," Kohn said. https://cheddar.com/media/playboy-goes-public-health-gaming-lifestyle-focus Oh? The CEO actually said it? Ok then. “We have developed certain strains…” They’re already working with growers on strains and genetics? Ok. There are several legal cannabis markets for those products right now, international and stateside. I expect Playboy licensed hemp and THC pre-rolls by EOY. Something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/842996758/10-playboy-pre-roll-tubes-limited?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=pre+roll+playboy&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1 Maintaining cannabis operations can be costly and a regulatory headache. Playboy’s licensing strategy allows them to pick successful, established partners and sidestep traditional barriers to entry. You know what I like about these new markets? They’re expanding. Worldwide. And they are going to be a bigger deal than they already are with or without Playboy. Who thinks weed and gambling are going away? Too many people like that stuff. These are easy markets. And Playboy is early enough to carve out their spot in each. Fuck it, read this too: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimosman/2020/10/20/playboy-could-be-the-king-of-spacs-here-are-three-picks/?sh=2e13dcaa3e05
Numbers: You want numbers? I got numbers. As per the company’s most recent SEC filing:
“For the year ended December 31, 2019, and the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s historical consolidated revenue was $78.1 million and $101.3 million, respectively, historical consolidated net income (loss) was $(23.6) million and $(4.8) million, respectively, and Adjusted EBITDA was $13.1 million and $21.8 million, respectively.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Licensing segment contributed $44.2 million in revenue and $31.1 million in net income.”
“In the ninth months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Direct-to-Consumer segment contributed $40.2 million in revenue and net income of $0.1 million.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Digital Subscriptions and Content segment contributed $15.4 million in revenue and net income of $7.4 million.”
They are profitable across all three of their current business segments.
“Playboy’s return to the public markets presents a transformed, streamlined and high-growth business. The Company has over $400 million in cash flows contracted through 2029, sexual wellness products available for sale online and in over 10,000 major retail stores in the US, and a growing variety of clothing and branded lifestyle and digital gaming products.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
Growth: Playboy has massive growth in China and massive growth potential in India. “In China, where Playboy has spent more than 25 years building its business, our licensees have an enormous footprint of nearly 2,500 brick and mortar stores and 1,000 ecommerce stores selling high quality, Playboy-branded men’s casual wear, shoes/footwear, sleepwear, swimwear, formal suits, leather & non-leather goods, sweaters, active wear, and accessories. We have achieved significant growth in China licensing revenues over the past several years in partnership with strong licensees and high-quality manufacturers, and we are planning for increased growth through updates to our men’s fashion lines and expansion into adjacent categories in men’s skincare and grooming, sexual wellness, and women’s fashion, a category where recent launches have been well received.” The men’s market in China is about the same size as the entire population of the United States and European Union combined. Playboy is a leading brand in this market. They are expanding into the women’s market too. Did you know CBD toothpaste is huge in China? China loves CBD products and has hemp fields that dwarf those in the US. If Playboy expands their CBD line China it will be huge. Did you know the gambling money in Macau absolutely puts Las Vegas to shame? Technically, it's illegal on the mainland, but in reality, there is a lot of gambling going on in China. https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/10/19/magic-johnson-and-uncle-buds-cbd-brand-enter-china-via-tmall-partnership/?sh=271776ca411e “In India, Playboy today has a presence through select apparel licensees and hospitality establishments. Consumer research suggests significant growth opportunities in the territory with Playboy’s brand and categories of focus.” “Playboy Enterprises has announced the expansion of its global consumer products business into India as part of a partnership with Jay Jay Iconic Brands, a leading fashion and lifestyle Company in India.” “The Indian market today is dominated by consumers under the age of 35, who represent more than 65 percent of the country’s total population and are driving India’s significant online shopping growth. The Playboy brand’s core values of playfulness and exploration resonate strongly with the expressed desires of today’s younger millennial consumers. For us, Playboy was the perfect fit.” “The Playboy international portfolio has been flourishing for more than 25 years in several South Asian markets such as China and Japan. In particular, it has strategically targeted the millennial and gen-Z audiences across categories such as apparel, footwear, home textiles, eyewear and watches.” https://www.licenseglobal.com/industry-news/playboy-expands-global-footprint-india It looks like they gave COVID the heisman in terms of net damage sustained: “Although Playboy has not suffered any material adverse consequences to date from the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has been impacted both negatively and positively. The remote working and stay-at-home orders resulted in the closure of the London Playboy Club and retail stores of Playboy’s licensees, decreasing licensing revenues in the second quarter, as well as causing supply chain disruption and less efficient product development thereby slowing the launch of new products. However, these negative impacts were offset by an increase in Yandy’s direct-to-consumer sales, which have benefited in part from overall increases in online retail sales so far during the pandemic.” Looks like the positives are long term (Yandy acquisition) and the negatives are temporary (stay-at-home orders).
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921006093/tm213766-1_defa14a.htm
This speaks to their ability to maintain a financially solvent company throughout the transition phase to the aforementioned areas. They’d say some fancy shit like “expanded business model to encompass four key revenue streams: Sexual Wellness, Style & Apparel, Gaming & Lifestyle, and Beauty & Grooming.” I hear “we’re just biding our time with these trinkets until those dollar dollar bill y’all markets are fully up and running.” But the truth is these existing revenue streams are profitable, scalable, and rapidly expanding Playboy’s e-commerce segment around the world.
"Even in the face of COVID this year, we've been able to grow EBITDA over 100 percent and revenue over 68 percent, and I expect that to accelerate going into 2021," he said. “Playboy is accelerating its growth in company-owned and branded consumer products in attractive and expanding markets in which it has a proven history of brand affinity and consumer spend.”
Also in the SEC filing, the Time Frame:
“As we detailed in the definitive proxy statement, the SPAC stockholder meeting to vote on the transaction has been set for February 9th, and, subject to stockholder approval and satisfaction of the other closing conditions, we expect to complete the merger and begin trading on NASDAQ under ticker PLBY shortly thereafter,” concluded Kohn.
The Players: Suhail “The Whale” Rizvi (HMFIC), Ben “The Bridge” Kohn (CEO), “lil” Suying Liu & “Big” Dong Liu (Young-gun China gang). I encourage you to look these folks up. The real OG here is Suhail Rizvi. He’s from India originally and Chairman of the Board for the new PLBY company. He was an early investor in Twitter, Square, Facebook and others. His firm, Rizvi Traverse, currently invests in Instacart, Pinterest, Snapchat, Playboy, and SpaceX. Maybe you’ve heard of them. “Rizvi, who owns a sprawling three-home compound in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a 1.65-acre estate in Palm Beach, Florida, near Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, moved to Iowa Falls when he was five. His father was a professor of psychology at Iowa. Along with his older brother Ashraf, a hedge fund manager, Rizvi graduated from Wharton business school.” “Suhail Rizvi: the 47-year-old 'unsocial' social media baron: When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks (2013), one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. In IPO, Twitter seeks to be 'anti-FB'” “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia looks like a big Twitter winner. So do the moneyed clients of Jamie Dimon. But as you’ve-got-to-be-joking wealth washed over Twitter on Thursday — a company that didn’t exist eight years ago was worth $31.7 billion after its first day on the stock market — the non-boldface name of the moment is Suhail R. Rizvi. Mr. Rizvi, 47, runs a private investment company that is the largest outside investor in Twitter with a 15.6 percent stake worth $3.8 billion at the end of trading on Thursday (November, 2013). Using a web of connections in the tech industry and in finance, as well as a hearty dose of good timing, he brought many prominent names in at the ground floor, including the Saudi prince and some of JPMorgan’s wealthiest clients.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/technology/at-twitter-working-behind-the-scenes-toward-a-billion-dollar-payday.html Y’all like that Arab money? How about a dude that can call up Saudi Princes and convince them to spend? Funniest shit about I read about him: “Rizvi was able to buy only $100 million in Facebook shortly before its IPO, thus limiting his returns, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” Poor guy :(
He should be fine with the 16 million PLBY shares he's going to have though :)
Shuhail also has experience in the entertainment industry. He’s invested in companies like SESAC, ICM, and Summit Entertainment. He’s got Hollywood connections to blast this stuff post-merger. And he’s at least partially responsible for that whole Twilight thing. I’m team Edward btw.
I really like what Suhail has done so far. He’s lurked in the shadows while Kohn is consolidating the company, trimming the fat, making Playboy profitable, and aiming the ship at modern growing markets.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-ipo-rizvi-insight/insight-little-known-hollywood-investor-poised-to-score-with-twitter-ipo-idUSBRE9920VW20131003
Ben “The Bridge” Kohn is an interesting guy. He’s the connection between Rizvi Traverse and Playboy. He’s both CEO of Playboy and was previously Managing Partner at Rizvi Traverse. Ben seems to be the voice of the Playboy-Rizvi partnership, which makes sense with Suhail’s privacy concerns. Kohn said this:
“Today is a very big day for all of us at Playboy and for all our partners globally. I stepped into the CEO role at Playboy in 2017 because I saw the biggest opportunity of my career. Playboy is a brand and platform that could not be replicated today. It has massive global reach, with more than $3B of global consumer spend and products sold in over 180 countries. Our mission – to create a culture where all people can pursue pleasure – is rooted in our 67-year history and creates a clear focus for our business and role we play in people’s lives, providing them with the products, services and experiences that create a lifestyle of pleasure. We are taking this step into the public markets because the committed capital will enable us to accelerate our product development and go-to-market strategies and to more rapidly build our direct to consumer capabilities,” said Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy.
“Playboy today is a highly profitable commerce business with a total addressable market projected in the trillions of dollars,” Mr. Kohn continued, “We are actively selling into the Sexual Wellness consumer category, projected to be approximately $400 billion in size by 2024, where our recently launched intimacy products have rolled out to more than 10,000 stores at major US retailers in the United States. Combined with our owned & operated ecommerce Sexual Wellness initiatives, the category will contribute more than 40% of our revenue this year. In our Apparel and Beauty categories, our collaborations with high-end fashion brands including Missguided and PacSun are projected to achieve over $50M in retail sales across the US and UK this year, our leading men’s apparel lines in China expanded to nearly 2500 brick and mortar stores and almost 1000 digital stores, and our new men’s and women’s fragrance line recently launched in Europe. In Gaming, our casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth. Our product strategy is informed by years of consumer data as we actively expand from a purely licensing model into owning and operating key high-growth product lines focused on driving profitability and consumer lifetime value. We are thrilled about the future of Playboy. Our foundation has been set to drive further growth and margin, and with the committed capital from this transaction and our more than $180M in NOLs, we will take advantage of the opportunity in front of us, building to our goal of $100M of adjusted EBITDA in 2025.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
Also, according to their Form 4s, “Big” Dong Liu and “lil” Suying Liu just loaded up with shares last week. These guys are brothers and seem like the Chinese market connection. They are only 32 & 35 years old. I don’t even know what that means, but it's provocative.
https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1832415.htm
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-ii-002600994.html
Y’all like that China money?
“Mr. Liu has been the Chief Financial Officer of Dongguan Zhishang Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd., a regional designer, manufacturer and distributor of LED lights serving commercial customers throughout Southern China since November 2016, at which time he led a syndicate of investments into the firm. Mr. Liu has since overseen the financials of Dongguan Zhishang as well as provided strategic guidance to its board of directors, advising on operational efficiency and cash flow performance. From March 2010 to October 2016, Mr. Liu was the Head of Finance at Feidiao Electrical Group Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese manufacturer of electrical outlets headquartered in Shanghai and with businesses in the greater China region as well as Europe.”
Dr. Suying Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp., commented, “Playboy is a unique and compelling investment opportunity, with one of the world’s largest and most recognized brands, its proven consumer affinity and spend, and its enormous future growth potential in its four product segments and new and existing geographic regions. I am thrilled to be partnering with Ben and his exceptional team to bring his vision to fruition.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
These guys are good. They have a proven track record of success across multiple industries. Connections and money run deep with all of these guys. I don’t think they’re in the game to lose.
I was going to write a couple more paragraphs about why you should have a look at this but really the best thing you can do is read this SEC filing from a couple days ago. It explains the situation in far better detail. Specifically, look to page 137 and read through their strategy. Also, look at their ownership percentages and compensation plans including the stock options and their prices. The financials look great, revenue is up 90% Q3, and it looks like a bright future.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
I’m hesitant to attach this because his position seems short term, but I’m going to with a warning because he does hit on some good points (two are below his link) and he’s got a sizable position in this thing (500k+ on margin, I think). I don’t know this guy but he did look at the same publicly available info and make roughly the same prediction, albeit without the in depth gambling or cannabis mention. You can also search reddit for ‘MCAC’ and very few relevant results come up and none of them even come close to really looking at this thing.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gOvAd6lebs452hFlWWbxVjQ3VMsjGBkbJeXRwDwIJfM/edit?usp=sharing
“Also, before you people start making claims that Playboy is a “boomer” company, STOP RIGHT THERE. This is not a good argument. Simply put. The only thing that matters is Playboy’s name recognition, not their archaic business model which doesn’t even exist anymore as they have completely repurposed their business.”
“Imagine not buying $MCAC at a 400M valuation lol. Streetwear department is worth 1B alone imo.”
Considering the ridiculous Chinese growth as a lifestyle brand, he’s not wrong.
Current Cultural Significance and Meme Value: A year ago I wouldn’t have included this section but the events from the last several weeks (even going back to tsla) have proven that a company’s ability to meme and/or gain social network popularity can have an effect. Tik-tok, Snapchat, Twitch, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter. They all have Playboy stuff on them. Kids in middle and highschool know what Playboy is but will likely never see or touch one of the magazines in person. They’ll have a Playboy hoodie though. Crazy huh? A lot like GME, PLBY would hugely benefit from meme-value stock interest to drive engagement towards their new business model while also building strategic coffers. This interest may not directly and/or significantly move the stock price but can generate significant interest from larger players who will.
Bull Case: The year is 2025. Playboy is now the world leader pleasure brand. They began by offering Playboy licensed gaming products, including gambling products, direct to consumers through existing names. By 2022, demand has skyrocketed and Playboy has designed and released their own gambling platforms. In 2025, they are also a leading cannabis brand in the United States and Canada with proprietary strains and products geared towards sexual wellness. Cannabis was legalized in the US in 2023 when President Biden got glaucoma but had success with cannabis treatment. He personally pushes for cannabis legalization as he steps out of office after his first term. Playboy has also grown their brand in China and India to multi-billion per year markets. The stock goes up from 11ish to 100ish and everyone makes big gains buying somewhere along the way.
Bear Case: The United States does a complete 180 on marijuana and gambling. President Biden overdoses on marijuana in the Lincoln bedroom when his FDs go tits up and he loses a ton of money in his sports book app after the Fighting Blue Hens narrowly lose the National Championship to Bama. Playboy is unable to expand their cannabis and gambling brands but still does well with their worldwide lifestyle brand. They gain and lose some interest in China and India but the markets are too large to ignore them completely. The stock goes up from 11ish to 13ish and everyone makes 15-20% gains.
TL;DR: Successful technology/e-commerce investment firm took over Playboy to turn it into a porn, online gambling/gaming, sports book, cannabis company, worldwide lifestyle brand that promotes sexual wellness, vetern access, women-ownership, minority-ownership, and “pleasure for all”. Does a successful online team reinventing an antiquated physical copy giant sound familiar? No options yet, shares only for now. $11.38 per share at time of writing. My guess? $20 by the end of February. $50 by EOY. This is not financial advice. I am not qualified to give financial advice. I’m just sayin’ I would personally use a Playboy sports book app while smoking a Playboy strain specific joint and it would be cool if they did that. Do your own research. You’d probably want to start here:
WARNING - POTENTIALLY NSFW - SEXY MODELS AHEAD - no actual nudity though
https://s26.q4cdn.com/895475556/files/doc_presentations/Playboy-Craig-Hallum-Conference-Investor-Presentation-11_17_20-compressed.pdf
Or here:
https://www.mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/default.aspx
Jimmy Chill: “Get into any SPAC at $10 or $11 and you are going to make money.”
STL;DR: Buy MCAC. MCAC > PLBY couple weeks. Rocketship. Moon.
Position: 5000 shares. I will buy short, medium, and long-dated calls once available.

I am 25 years old make $75,000, live in Northern Virginia and work as a Senior Advisory Specialist

I live with my boyfriend, W., but we do not combine finances. Additionally, I would like to put a content warning here at the top: I discuss tracking food and weight loss throughout this money diary.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance - $19,195 in two 401ks (current and former company) and $18,478 in a Roth IRA (my grandparents set this up and matched the money I made working in high school/college - I'm very grateful that they set this up for me!)
Equity - no equity currently, I rent and do not own a car
Checking account balance - currently ~$5,000 (I try to keep it around this amount)
Credit card debt - $0 (I pay it off every month)
Student loan debt - $9,500 remaining to pay off the loans for my BA in political science (here's hoping I finish it off this year!)
Stocks - $1,190 in stocks from my former company. I also have some miscellaneous other stocks that I was gifted when I was younger and I'm unclear on the value of them (my dad manages them for me)
Savings - $1,500 (it took a big hit while I was unemployed this past summer)
Section Two: Income
Income Progression:
High school (2012-2013) - I worked at a local office supply store making $7.50/hour. I did this for fun spending money a few days a week after school.
College (2014-2017) - I worked two on-campus jobs. The first was as a front desk person at the fitness center beginning at the end of my freshman year; I typically did ten hours a week at this job. The second was as an assistant in our career center, and I did this for the entirety of my senior year; I typically did five hours a week at this job. Both paid $8.50/hour.
Internship (2015-2017) - I studied abroad off-cycle from July to December in Australia, and was offered an internship doing recruitment and operations work at my mom's company after randomly meeting the COO in an elevator and impressing him in a brief conversation. What originally was going to be a five week internship went on to be part-time remote when I was at school, and full-time when I was home for the summer and on breaks. It paid $12/hour and introduced me to human resources and strategy & operations.
Company #1, Job #1 (2017-2018) - After graduating college, I moved to begin working in Washington DC as an associate at a healthcare firm making $40,000/year. I really enjoyed this work and my team, even though there were some times I had to work long hours. I was promoted to a senior associate role after my first six months, which came with a 10% raise.
Company #1, Job #2 (2018-2020) - I decided that, while I liked my role within the company, I wanted to gain client-facing experience. I applied for and moved into a analyst role in a different department at $52,000/year. I was excited about this role because I got to travel and train clients onsite one to three times a month and build up a lot of important business skills. About halfway through 2019, I was told that they wanted to pay me more because they felt my effort outpaced my seniority and was out of the blue bumped up to making $70,000/year. During this role, I was also eligible for up to a 10% bonus based on how my team did.
Unemployment (2020) - Due to COVID-19, my company took a big hit being in the healthcare space. The vast majority of my team was made redundant in June 2020. While a super stressful time, I did get some severance and used it as an opportunity to assess what I really wanted in my next role; I knew I liked being client-facing, but realized I wanted to get back to human resources in some way.
Company #2 (2020-present) - I took my current role as a senior advisory specialist in the fall. I was able to negotiate a $75,000/year salary and a 5% bonus. The work I do is very energizing and rewarding, and I'm hopeful I can stay here for a while and move up the ladder because I like what I do a lot!
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
I make $4380.90 each month after deductions. I get paid twice a month.
Deductions (per paycheck)
· Medical insurance: $29.50
· Dental insurance: $7.50
· Eye insurance: $2.75
· 401k contribution: $156.25 (I plan on increasing this after my student loans are paid off) + 4% company match
Side Gig Monthly Take Home:
I run a book blog on the side, and while I currently don't make any money off of it, publishers often send me advanced reader copies of books! I save a lot of money that way, because I am buying books constantly.
Section Three: Expenses
· Rent: $975 for my portion of the one bedroom apartment that I share with W. I pay slightly more than half because I make more money than he does. All utilities are included.
· Student loans: $500 is the minimum I pay per month because I want them paid off as soon as possible (the minimum monthly payment is about half that). I usually throw extra money towards them when I have a low spend month.
· WiFi and cable: $140.06, which is absolutely ridiculous and I keep saying I'm going to call Comcast and negotiate this down but get lazy and don't. Yell at me in the comments to do this!
· Netflix: $14.88 (I also let my best friend use this)
· Spotify: $9.99
· Hulu with live sports, HBO, Starz, and Showtime add-ons: W. pays
· Amazon Prime: W. pays
· Nail salon subscription: $40 (this is cheaper than the cost of a gel manicure and includes a free gel mani every month plus extra bonuses, which makes this very worth it despite sounding extravagant!)
· Care/of vitamin subscription: $70
· Boxing membership: $179 for unlimited classes
· WW: $15.11 (I'm on a six month deal currently)
· Fitbit Premium: $9.99
· iPhone payment plan: $31.20 (this will end in November for my iPhone 11. I am still on my parents' unlimited data phone plan and have been told I never have to leave, which is a total blessing!)
· Google storage: $2.12
· iCloud storage: $2.99
Additionally, I have an annual payment of approximately $2,750 for my life insurance policy; I have a blend of whole and term life. I am currently not making these payments, as my grandparents created a fund to pay the first several years of premiums as they felt it was important for me to get life insurance at a young age so it could start gaining cash value. I am incredibly grateful for this!
Day One - Tuesday 1/19
7am: My alarm goes off and I am still tired. W. and I cuddle for ten minutes or so before he gets up to make us coffee. We drink our coffee in bed while watching a few YouTube videos from our favorite content creators; the two of us are very into a video game that we play together and consume a lot of content around it.
8:30am: Time to get back into work! We both work from home right now, so we move into the living room together. My inbox is surprisingly empty after a long weekend, so I dive back in to a client request that I didn't finish before closing my laptop on Friday.
9:00am: I have a few morning meetings, so I take a few minutes to get ready. I throw in my contacts and brush my teeth, then get dressed from the waist up in a comfy gray Fortune Ivy sweater and hoop earrings. I make another cup of coffee to keep my energy up.
9:25am: I move into the bedroom to take my meetings. I have a bed tray for my laptop, which makes it feel more desk-like on my bed. I first have a meeting with another member of my team to discuss how we're dividing up a project that we're working on together, followed by two town hall meetings. At some point during my meetings, W. texts me that he ordered an energy drink powder that we've been meaning to try and Venmo requests me for my half ($23). I munch on the last four donut holes we have left over from the weekend for a snack during my meetings and make sure to log what I eat in my WW app.
1:00pm: Out of meetings and in need of a break. W. comes into the bedroom and asks me if I want to go out on a quick walk, which I happily agree to. I throw on Girlfriend Collective leggings, my lucky Rangers sweatshirt, ballet flats, and a freshly washed mask and we head out. After a good 20 minute walk, W. offers to pay for McDonald's for lunch, which is great but definitely not WW friendly. I get a 10 piece nuggets and large fries, and W. gets himself a few burgers. He pays and we take it home to eat on the couch and chat for a few minutes before I have to get on more work calls.
2:00pm: Time for more meetings and project work! I return to the bedroom and call into meetings for an hour, including a weekly meeting I facilitate, and then put my 800th rewatch of Grey's Anatomy on the TV in background while I work.
5:30pm: I log off of my laptop right on time for a Facetime date with my DC best friend, A. We met at my first job and have been close since the minute we met. She just moved into a new apartment and got a new job, so she gives me a tour of the new place and we catch up for about half an hour. After we hang up, I say hi to W. for a few minutes and then go hop in the shower. I do my usual skincare routine (a bevy of Ole Henriksen products, I swear by them) before throwing on comfy clothes and joining W. in the living room.
7:00pm: I throw the Rangers-Devils game on my iPad (I'm a diehard New York sports fan except for basketball) and text my hometown best friend, B., about absolutely nothing while W. plays a video game for a while. I'm not super hungry, so W. heats up leftover tuna casserole for dinner while I just cut up an orange. At some point we mute the hockey game to watch a few episodes of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, our first forray into the Housewives franchise which we've quickly become addicted to. We brush our teeth and make it to bed around 10:30pm.
Total: $23
Day Two - Wednesday, 1/20
7:00am: Usual morning routine: wake up, cuddle, coffee, and videos. I get out of bed to make the coffee this morning.
8:15am: I join W. for a quick morning shower before work starts for the day. I also do my weekly weigh in and I'm down almost another pound! The progress is slow, but that is also the healthy way to lose weight. I mark it down and log my coffee.
9:00am: I text with my mom about today's inauguration while I work. She wants to know if I can hear anything from my place, but besides the occasional sirens, there is no big fanfare yet. I set a reminder on my phone to turn on the news in a bit to listen.
10:45am: I finish up a difficult client request and send it off to their account team. W. gets me a lemon Pellegrino from the fridge for me to enjoy during my 11:00 meeting.
12:30pm: Out of my meetings and we have a new president!!! W. gives me a recap of Biden's speech and I find myself getting emotional after watching the video of Kamala getting sworn in. After wiping away the tears, I throw some chicken, buffalo sauce, and seasonings into our pressure cooker so we can have easy lunches: chicken sandwich and salad for W., chicken quesadilla for me so I can easily measure out how much of each food item I'm using. I log my food and we eat together during a quick fifteen minute break.
2:00pm: After changing out my water bottles (I like to drink out of reusable water bottles over drinking glasses, not really sure why) I remember why I don't like to use this one. I log on to the Hydroflask website and order a 21oz bottle with the sports cap lid ($28.58). I pick a color that's on sale because it's cheaper, find a coupon code for free shipping, and go through Rakuten so I can get 2% cash back. I also figure now is as good a time as any to get dressed since I have to be on camera for my afternoon meetings, so I throw on a camel and black polka dot Papermoon blouse and black Beyond Yoga leggings.
3:45pm: Weekly check in with my manager while I snack on a sliced cucumber. He and I discuss my 2020 review, which he literally had to do for me when I was less than a month in the role, and what my goals for 2021 are. I am setting my intentions on Friday, and I am very excited to think through what I want to accomplish this year. We discuss a few other projects and end a little earlier than expected. A friend of mine is streaming on Twitch, so I put his stream up on the TV while I work on a data project and gift a sub to a fellow viewer ($5.99). I see that someone has put a 4:30-5pm meeting on my calendar for tomorrow, so I have to cancel out of my 4:45 boxing class. Sigh.
5:45pm: I wrap up my work and head out to chat with W. for a bit. We decide to play our favorite video game for a while, so we log in and start playing in duos. We get a win in our very first game! After a while, our good friend N. joins us, so we switch to trios. At some point during what becomes a marathon gaming session, W. makes himself a frozen pizza and I drink the last two Stella Cidres we have in the fridge. Brush our teeth and head to bed around 11pm.
Total: $34.57
Day Three - Thursday 1/21
3:57am: I wake up for absolutely no reason. I hate when this happens. It takes me over an hour to fall back asleep.
7:00am: Usual morning routine, cut a little short for me to get ready for an 8:30 meeting.
10:00am: In desperate need of a break from my work, I log onto Etsy to pick out some cute candles for A. as a little housewarming gift. I have to text her for her new address, which kind of ruins the surprise, but I know how much she loves candles so I do it anyway ($32.86).
1:00pm: I get off of a client call that I shadowed with a member of my team. I have just decided on my focus area, hence why I am trying to get more exposure to the client work here. My teammate and I debrief and agree that I'll continue to shadow the calls that she does with this client so I can see the whole process through.
3:00pm: Out of another team meeting and exhausted from work. My 4:30 meeting cancels, and I'm bummed for a few minutes because I cancelled my boxing class to be in that meeting. But my mood turns around almost instantly - I got off the waitlist for the 6pm class! I text W. so he knows, and he asks if I can make him dinner before I go because he doesn't want to wait until I get back to eat. Fair enough. I agree and get back to work on my data project.
3:30pm: I get an email with the return label for my Fitbit. I've had it for a year and it randomly started giving me a rash on my wrist, so Fitbit is reimbursing me the total amount I paid for it. Customer service at its finest! I send the label to my Fedex store for pickup tomorrow, since I don't have a printer ($0.52).
5:30pm: I wrap up my work for the day and throw on Old Navy active leggings and a tank, tie back my hair, mask up, and head out the door to the boxing studio. It's endurance day and we do eight minute blocks instead of six, so I am dying by the time class is done. After class, I go to Target to pick up a few miscellaneous items we need: half & half, white vinegar, and chocolate peppermint stick Luna bars ($10.64). I mobile order and stop by Chipotle on the way home to grab a dinner of crispy chicken tacos and chips and guac ($16.23).
7:30pm: I stop by the concierge desk on my way back into the building to grab packages I have waiting and to catch up with my favorite concierge. She is a delight to talk to, but busy tonight, so I don't stay too long. Once home, I devour my tacos in about four minutes and then shower before putting on the Laker-Bucks on the iPad while W. plays video games. We migrate to the bedroom after halftime to finish it and are both exhausted that we fall asleep immediately after.
Total: $60.25
Day Four - Friday 1/22
7am: Usual morning routine. After watching two videos, W. announces that he isn't feeling well and is taking a day of PTO. I get him tucked comfy into bed with a movie and start my work day early. I put Grey's Anatomy on the TV while I work.
11am: I am hungry after powering through work all morning, so I place an order for a cheese pizza from Wiseguys ($21.99). A nice quick walk will feel good.
11:30am: I mask up and head out to pick up the pizza, stopping by CVS on the way to get a Red Bull for W., a Diet Coke for myself, and a bottle of Benadryl because I ran out ($27.27). I eat a slice of pizza while watching a bit of a Twitch stream before getting back to work. I also spend some time texting with B., as well as my older sister, C.
1:30pm: Back to back calls. When they're over, I check in on W., who unfortunately only feels worse. He decides to try and nap, and also informs me that he wanted to watch a Marvel movie so he added Disney+ to our Hulu subscription. He pays for that, but I'm happy we'll finally be able to watch those shows we've been missing out on!
4:30pm: Done with my projects and decide to call it a little early today. I appreciate that my manager doesn't particularly care if we stop early when all of our work is done, and I need to go to the Fedex store. I listen to one of my curated Spotify playlists (a lot of Halsey, Taylor Swift, Joan, and Flor are on this one) while I walk there to pick up the label I had printed. As I walk out of the store, several of my music friends start texting me - Halsey cancelled her summer tour. I am bummed because I was supposed to travel and go to several shows with friends. I make a mental note to start cancelling hotel reservations and request my Ticketmaster refunds tomorrow.
5:30pm: Manicure time! I've started doing gel manicures every other week because I have a horrible nail biting habit and this is the only way I can stop myself. I catch up with my favorite nail tech and the salon owners over a glass of sparkling rose. Today we do a nude-pink polish with black and white polka dots. When that's done, I also poke around at the beautiful jewelry they sell and pick out a pair or multicolored acrylic bow earrings. My subscription covers the manicure, so I only have to pay my tip (25% of the service cost) and for the earrings ($24.87). I text W. to let him know I'm on my way home and he asks if I can pick up NyQuil for him. I pop into CVS on the way home to get it ($16.94).
7:30pm: W. and I have a quiet evening, bouncing between a few TV shows and basketball games. We call it an early night and go to bed before 10. Wild Friday!
Total: $91.07
Day Five - Saturday, 1/23
8:30am: I wake up feeling pretty well rested. W. is still sleeping, so I get out of bed quietly and head out to the living room. I answer a few work emails that came in last evening, including a stretch project to present some webinars later in the year! I used to facilitate webinars in an old role of mine, so I'm looking forward to flexing that muscle again. I also submit my Ticketmaster refund requests, cancel some hotel reservations, and peruse my favorite auction website. I spy my dream Louis Vuitton bag (Speedy 40 in canvas and leather) at what could be a steal. I do some mental math at what would be the max I would splurge on it and set a max bid. I'm currently winning and text B. with excitement.
9:45am: W. texts me that he's awake but still not feeling well. I crawl back into bed for some snuggles and ask him what he needs. He wants bagels, so I agree to go out to pick them up if he pays for them. He orders a BEC on an everything bagel for himself and a multigrain bagel with butter for me. I throw on black Girlfriend Collective leggings, a Halsey tee, and my Adidas superstars, grab my mask and jacket, and head out the door. It's a little chilly, but it feels good. It's a quick turnaround to get back with the bagels. W. and I eat them in bed while watching some Real Housewives.
12:00pm: We're still in bed. Oops. We transition into watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and W. orders us some Popeye's to eat throughout the day: 12 piece spicy chicken, biscuits, fries, mashed potatoes, and a large Diet Coke to split. We will heat up leftover Popeye's for lunch someday this week. I embrace the fact that this is not going to be a good WW week for me, and remind myself it's okay to be human and have some indulgent weekends. Progress, not perfection!
5:00pm: W. dials into his weekly virtual D&D session and I decide to solo queue my video game for the evening. I debate having some wine, but decide the fast food was probably enough for my stomach and that I don't need to add alcohol into the mix. W.'s session wraps up around 9:30, so we chat while I clean the apartment a bit before taking a quick shower. I towel dry my hair, toss on some weekly skincare (eye cream and a fancy serum that I'm not really sure what it does, it just makes my skin glowy) before settling into bed.
Total: $0
Day Six - Sunday 1/24
3:00am: I wake up congested as can be. I get two Benadryl and a Zicam from the bathroom, lay back down, and pray for sleep to come.
9:10am: Well, I guess sleep came. I missed the start of the booking window for upcoming boxing classes, but luckily there are still openings in all the classes I wanted. I'm trying to up my workouts, so I decide to try the Wednesday morning class as well. Maybe I'll like being a morning workout person?
11:00am: W. and I both decide to call our respective moms. My mom and I try to talk at least once a week on the phone (we also text every day, I just haven't mentioned it, whoops) and we catch up on random bits of each other's lives for about 45 minutes or so. I tell her about Halsey cancelling tour and we're a bit worried, as we're supposed to see Maroon 5 together later in the year after it got rescheduled from 2020. Hopefully by the fall we'll have herd immunity, though I'm not super positive that concerts will happen. I miss concerts :(
12:00pm: I do a bit of apartment maintenance: taking out the trash, breaking down boxes and taking them to recycling, wiping down the countertops, etc. W. comes out to the living room when his phone call ends and we try to decide what we want to do. W. is still not feeling great, which is worrying, but he has no COVID symptoms. He gets a quick telehealth appointment and is assured that he most likely has the cold/head flu thing that is going around and should stay home to not burden the healthcare system. The doctor assures him that me coming/going from the apartment shouldn't transmit whatever W. has and that while he should stay home until he is feeling better, as long as I'm sanitizing and showering often, I can leave. I'm guessing a lot of people are asking that question since the doctor told him that unprompted, and I'm relieved to know that I won't be unknowingly getting someone else sick.
1:00pm: W. and I decide to order Vocelli's for a late lunch/early dinner: bacon and cheddar pizza rolls and a build-your-own stromboli with bacon, spinach, and extra cheese. I have a GrubHub gift card from Christmas so we don't have to pay out of pocket for this meal. We play some video games together until the food gets here, then pause to eat and watch an episode of Shark Tank. When we finish eating, we go back to gaming because there isn't much else to do while W. is sick.
7:00pm: I move into the bedroom so we can watch the Rangers-Penguins game on my iPad while he plays a different video game and I scroll on my phone. My dad randomly calls me, and I'm worried something happened to my grandpa (he's my last living grandparent and lives alone). Luckily, Grandpa is fine and my dad was just jealous that I talked to my mom this morning while he was out running errands. He's adorable. We catch up for about ten minutes before he has to go. When 8:00 rolls around, we switch over to the Wizards-Spurs game since they're finally playing again and mute the hockey game. Both teams lose and I'm a sad sports fan. We brush our teeth and throw on some Futurama to fall asleep to.
Total: $0
Day Seven - Monday, 1/25
7:00am: Usual weekday wakeup routine. When it's time to get to work, W. decides he'll work from the bedroom so he can continue to rest. We order Starbucks (peppermint mochas for both of us, turkey and pesto panini for him, sprouted grain vegan bagel for me) on UberEats and split the cost because we wouldn't normally have it delivered ($14.87). I listen to calls while I work and get dressed in a bright color Girlfriend Collective set and black Forever 21 active tank to try and offset the dreary weather.
10:00am: Out of my first set of meetings and I run the laundry down to the laundry room ($3.25). I listen to a Twitch stream while I work and continuously check on the Louis Vuitton I'm bidding on. The auction ends tonight at 8pm and I'm still winning!
1:00pm: Still working through projects. I have been outbid past the maximum I set for myself on the Louis Vuitton, which is disappointing but I'm sure I'll get one eventually. I can still dream about it in the meanwhile :)
2:15pm: I take a quick break to package up my old Fitbit and place an order for a replacement. It ends up being free because of my full refund; the only cost is not having a tracker for a week or so. Could be worse! I make myself an energy drink using the powder that we ordered earlier this week to fuel my afternoon meetings with some non-coffee energy.
4:30pm: I throw on my sneakers and mask, grab my gym bag, and head off to boxing. After a few tough client requests today, throwing some punches feels amazing!
5:30pm: Out of class and off to Safeway and Target for some filler groceries. I did a big food shopping last Monday and we ended up doing a lot of takeout, so we don't need much. I get milk, yogurt, frozen berries, ciabatta rolls, frozen popcorn chicken, peanut butter pretzels, and two types of cereal. I text W. to let him know I'm on my way home ($23.70 for my half) and despite the drizzle, it is a refreshing walk.
6:30pm: Freshly showered and time to decide what to do for the evening. I find a movie, Collateral, by doing a reference search for a movie vibe that I loved (Inside Man, if you're curious) but am disappointed to find out it's not available on any streaming service. W. saves the day by telling me we actually own it on DVD but have never watched it, and lo and behold, it's buried in our giant plastic tub of DVDs. Movie night saved! We curl up on the couch and watch the movie with leftover Popeye's.
8:45pm: The movie is done and I'd give it a solid 4/5 stars. While discussing our favorite parts of the movie, we get into a random fight. I find myself getting heated for no reason, take a deep breath, and ask him to explain his side. W. has severe anxiety, and it turns out he had a few anxiety attacks during the movie so he wasn't articulating himself properly. We talk it out and he apologizes; he's made a lot of progress on dealing with his anxiety, but he has a long way to go. Not wanting to end the night on a bad note, we decide to stay up a little later than usual so we can watch some more Real Housewives and feel better by the time we go to bed. Asleep by 11:30.
Total: $41.82
Weekly Expenses:
Food + Drink: $118.71
Fun / Entertainment: $5.99
Home + Health: $68.06
Clothes + Beauty: $24.87
Transport: $0
Other: $33.38
Lastly, reflect on your diary!
This diary was very typical in some ways, and atypical in others. I normally cook a lot more, but with W. being sick I definitely used that as an excuse for takeout, hence why I'm following WW to try and lose weight! I think if I continue to be careful with my spending I can pay off my student loans this year and build my emergency fund back up, so I'm definitely buying less "fun" things in 2021… but if another Louis Vuitton comes around I'll probably bid on it :)

In-depth look At Mihoyo's History, misconception about Gacha gaming industry, and Genshin Impact's future

You Are The Real MVP - Why Genshin Impact Is The Real Game of the Year in 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLxgyp0pnMQ
Hi all, I see there is a lot of anger and anxiety toward Genshin Impact due to the wide audience it brought to the table, as well as a lot of misconceptions about the gacha gaming industry. I am 40 years old and have been gaming for over 30 years. I have 300+ DAYS /played in World of Warcraft and recently, over 1000 hours in Path of Exile with popular build guides with hundreds of replies. I also have played just about every major hit of every era on every platform. I really want to tell you who Mihoyo really is, how the gacha gaming industry works, and what Genshin Impact's future looks like.
Mihoyo's History
In 2011, three college students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (comparable to Cornell in America) released their first game, FlyMe2TheMoon. When they graduated in 2013, they used their own money to make the first Honkai game (released as Zombiegal Kawaii overseas). This game allowed players to farm gold coins to buy all weapons and gear, only spend real money to speed up progress and came with glorious two players co-op way ahead of other mobile games at the time. At end of the day, players just didn't pay money for it. When they took it to investors, they were laughed at and ridiculed by everyone. Nobody is going to pay money for this silly anime stuff! You guys don't know how to monetize a game! Both of these games are still available on App Store, feel free to download them to check them out!
In 2014, on the verge of bankruptcy, the team learned monetization model from Puzzles & Dragons, the first-ever mobile game to break a billion dollars, and released Honkai 2 with the same art style and gameplay. The biggest change was moving to the gacha model. The game became a top-10 grossing title in China, released to overseas market as Guns GirlZ - Mirage Cabin and Guns Girl - Honkai Gakuen. Mihoyo the company was born. Today, Mihoyo has over 1000 employees and pays them more money than titans like Tencent and Netease, and runs their office in the ultra-expensive heart of Shanghai business district. Despite Genshin Impact's smashing global success and player's thirst for more content, they gave many of their employees a full 8 days break, standard with the 10/01 Chinese national holiday, for the historic job they did with the global launch. They understand it is a marathon, not a sprint.
For Mihoyo, the most important metric for their title will always be LIFETIME REVENUE, and they do not abandon their titles. All of them are still available. Honkai 2 is still getting content updates six years after release, even if the game itself is nothing more than a piece of history for them at this point. Honkai Impact 3 hit an all-time high revenue month this year, still makes a few hundred million dollars a year in China/Japan, three years after release, and Mihoyo took every dollar they made and spent an unprecedented 100 million dollars on a mobile game we know as Genshin Impact. You can count on Mihoyo to treat its most ambitious title ever with love and care, but you must remember they will always prioritize LIFETIME REVENUE over any other metric, which is what successful companies do because it is the only way to make the product best in class.
Fate Grand Order - Genshin Impact's TRUE inspiration
In 2015, Fate Grand Order was released as a turn-based mobile JRPG, the first six months it scored just $100 million dollars, and was on the verge of sinking into irrelevance. Five years later, the game grossed 4 billion dollars and became the most successful PVE game on any platform since GTA 5. How did it happen?
Many say it is the fate IP, but the truth is fate's IP is nothing special in a sea of big IPs trying to make a splash in mobile and failed miserably, just ask Nintendo how their two Mario games performed, or Square about their countless Final Fantasy mobile games. 80% of the billion-dollar games on mobile are actually brand new IP's.
The biggest challenge for every PVE game-as-a-service is monetization. PVP games like League of Legends and Fortnite do not need huge content updates to stay fresh and can maintain much higher daily active user counts to sell cosmetics, make $5 per player, and still hit a monster year. Monetizing PVE games is much harder. Players simply run out of things to do and quit the game, no matter how quickly you can produce content. Games like Path of Exile and Warframe struggle to break 100 million a year in revenue.
PVP gacha games like Summoners War and AFK Arena can rely on whales dueling each other to force meta changes, and they grew into billion-dollar franchises in their own right. But Fate Grand Order had a different idea in mind, what if you design amazing characters that are truly desirable, and price them at a low gacha rate so it takes thousands of dollars for rich players to max out their box by pulling multiple copies? You are never going to have the player base of a Candy Crush, let's try to maximize our revenue ceiling from whales instead, and make players emotionally attach to their characters because they are so well designed. The rest was history.
While there are indeed many generous gacha games like Granblue Fantasy, Azur Lane, Dragalia Lost, etc, none of them are in Fate Grand Order's tier if you look at their annual numbers, not even in the same ballpark. Other multi-billion dollar franchises like Puzzles and Dragons, Monster Strike also follow the same concept of greatly increasing the limit of what a whale can spend on a PVE game to max out a character. And yes, we are talking about providing strong benefits for getting multiple copies of the same character.
The numbers have proved time and time again, that maximizing whale spending in a PVE game is far more revenue than maximizing the number of monthly card players.
Genshin Impact's Target Audience
Any product that tries to be everything for everyone is doomed to fail. Mihoyo has very clear audiences in mind:

Players who love anime graphic and ARPG, there is simply no AAA game out there in this genre. Tales series, Xenoblade, etc. are all low budget, low sales games. Granblue Relink is single platform and dead on arrival. There is no dominant franchise at all.
Players who love Zelda's open-world exploration and environment interaction, but hate the difficult puzzles and survival/weapon durability/ammo aspect, and want constant content updates. Hey, a co-op mode with a real RPG system sounds amazing!
Mobile players who want more than a simple game like Fate Grand Order. They want to do dailies during commute and don't mind doing harder content on PC/console. The game needs to look good on a big screen at home. They don't want to learn/maintain two different PVE games given how time-consuming these games are.
Players who retired from MMORPG/ARPG's due to real-life commitments. Many of us who played World of Warcraft have kids now, and the outdated graphics, 20 buttons skill bar, the social requirements for raids . . . it is just too much to keep up. We want a simpler game that looks good and takes far less time to learn and play.

And let's just say they hit it out of the park with the greatest launch in gaming history. Never before a game hit PC/PS4/iOS/Android with cross-play on day one in 100 countries, 13 text language and 4 fully voiced languages, never before a game hit top 5 grossing in China/Japan/US/Korea at the same time, I don't even recall a marketing campaign did so well across so many drastically different regions and cultures. The AAA graphics, sound, incredible polish, you don't need me to tell you why this game is amazing. But from the competition's standpoint, the launch itself was like watching a bronze player climb to grandmaster overnight, and the game's biggest strength. Far bigger companies, franchises, do not dare to even think about launching a game at this scale. Mihoyo released the failed Honkai 1 overseas when the company was on the verge of collapsing, they always punched way above their weight when it comes to global releases.
Make no mistakes about it, this was never meant to be a single-player AAA game or a direct Diablo 3 / Path of Exile / Warframe competitor. It was meant to be a game that converts PC/console players to gacha gamers, by casting a wider net than any mobile game ever. They only need a small percentage of PC and console players to change their behaviors. The rest of them can play for free or leave and it won't hurt them at all. The monthly card is designed as a super good deal (look, WAY cheaper than World of Warcraft $15 per month) to get PC/console players to spend for the first time ever, breaks down their "why pay for a free game" defense. Once they pay once, the pity 5 star is always just a few dozen more pulls away, let me buy another pack! Before you know it, monthly cards are converted to dolphins, dolphins are converted to whales. It is by far the strongest business model for a PVE game today, and people who are new to the genre won't know what hit them.
Genshin Impact has an excellent chance to end Fate Grand Order's reign as the #1 most successful PVE game on any platform since 2016, by the virtue of being on every platform, and the same version across all regions.
LIFETIME REVENUE = Active Player Base * Spend Per Player * Longevity
For every game as a service, balancing these three variables is an incredibly difficult task. Can Mihoyo increase the rate on an event (like Cy Games gala events), put up a Diluc banner, and greatly increase spend per player? Yes, but they will provide less reason for people to pull on other days and lose out on long term revenue.
Likewise, the resin limitation is to prevent even whales from maxing out their characters and moving onto other games, that is why they have a hard limit on resin refill. Player progression is meticulously controlled to ensure content can keep up. A huge part of internal testing is to test how quickly a player of each spending level can go through content. Two-day, three-day, seven-day, and thirty-day player retention are critical metrics to F2P mobile games, you will always lose a huge number of players during these transitional phases. These are tried and true methods in gacha gaming to preserve the maximum number of players over the long haul. It is basically a much more advanced progression control than say, World of Warcraft's weekly raid lock outs. You have to FORCE your players to take breaks, or you will lose them way faster than you can churn out new content.
All four dailies, spend resins, and open-world exploration for crafting/ascension materials, a couple of chests/quest you missed, that is a health 60 minutes of gameplay. Gacha games provide resources for the next pull on every daily, every quest, every event. Getting a five star is a better feeling than getting any item drop in MMORPG/ARPG. Gacha games have a much stronger hold on its players because of this addiction, you are always very close to the next pull! Genshin Impact takes it a step further to actually encourage you to do single pulls over ten pulls. Over time resources will inevitably be loosened up as more contents are released, and daily quests and slowed down progression is there to keep you playing.
Behind the scenes, there is an ultra-complex data model that works tirelessly to balance all three variables. Looking at Mihoyo's track record with Honkai Impact 3, they know what they are doing to maximize LIFETIME REVENUE. With every gacha game like this, the developer has a price point they need to hit on a five star, then based on the competition they usually adjust the price significantly higher than what they consider to be acceptable. Whether it is gacha rate or stamina, once you reduce the price, you can never, ever increase it again. Start high and drop it when you need to is a much better strategy, and players think you listened to their feedback, win-win! If the daily active user doesn't drop while you keep the price high, why lower the price? The developer and player are always in a tug of war, with the developer testing player's limit on what is acceptable. It is just like how Apple kept iPhone with 2GB of memory and tiny screen size for a very long time because they are looking at the overall LIFETIME REVENUE, not because they didn't know their product needed these features.
Genshin Impact is priced at a premium because it has no competition, just like how Apple iPhones were priced at an ultra-premium when it first came out. Over time, prices will drop, resources will come easier, but until there is a real competitor, they do not need to care what lesser gacha games do. Do you think KeQing should be priced the same as a gacha character with PS1 graphics?
Genshin Impact's Future
100 million dollars estimate from Sensor Tower in two weeks does not include PC, PS4 and Chinese Android. Chinese Android revenue has been 1.8 times of China iOS for Honkai 3, many in the Chinese gaming industry speculate the true global revenue number of Genshin Impact is easily double of what Sensor Tower shows. Mihoyo is a private company and it fired one of the employees who bragged about the 09/15 China PC numbers, which was 10 million dollars, so we will never know the exact figures unless they go public. Don't expect Mihoyo to ever share revenue/player base numbers, that is just not how they operate.
There is no way the game can continue the 100 million dollars a week pace, that is 5 billion dollars a year, so for haters out there, you will see a massive decline in the player base between content updates, you will see the game falling out of top 10 grossing, you will get your "I told you so" moments when the weekly revenue drops by 50-70%. It is perfectly normal for gacha games between banners, and what Gensin Impact is doing is completely unsustainable. This is called filtering out users and building a stable player base.
However, even with the inevitable massive decline, this is a game destined to be a multi-billion dollar franchise. I personally give it a very conservative estimate of two billion dollars in three years. It will easily outperform the likes of BOTW, Cyberpunk 2077, etc. by the end of the first year in terms of the player base, hours played, and revenue. It will take money away from all other gacha games and force other developers to step up their game. It will take money away from long-standing multi-billion dollar PC PVE franchises like Dungeon Fighter Online, and to a lesser degree, MMORPG's like FF14. It will encourage companies to play with bigger budgets and provide PC/console releases for bigger mobile releases like Diablo Immortal, instead of relying on emulators. It will even change the monetization model for western F2P games. Iksar, lead designer of Hearthstone has been playing Genshin Impact since release. Imagine if Hearthstone didn't allow you to craft cards, and provided benefits to getting multiple copies of the same card. It is way too late for Hearthstone to change now, maybe there is still time to change Diablo Immortal's monetization model, I believe they will need either gacha or real-money auction house to be competitive.
But will Genshin Impact shake up the AAA industry? My personal opinion is no. Japanese developers do not have the technology to make mobile games at this level, you just need to look at the top 20 grossing Japanse mobile games. Western developers do not have the artwork to make characters so attractive, I mean just look at Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 characters, will whales spend $1000 on them? Whales spend enough money in gacha to pick up girls in real life many times over, many of them are ultra-rich and live a lavish lifestyle, just showing anime assets is not enough to win them over.
In all of my years playing Western games I have never been attached to a female character as I did with Artoria aka King Arthur of Fate Grand Order, I played the game for six months even if I don't really like turn-based JRPGs, and always enjoyed listening to her "Excalibur". Mihoyo is coming very close with some of Genshin Impact's character designs. I am not sure if Western culture is capable of creating the type of characters that can connect with players on an emotional level. Lara Croft is definitely not it. I believe Western gaming's general pursuit of realism and grittiness hurts them when it comes to creating an idealistic world and dreamy characters. Top western games tend to expose the harshness of real-world to players, instead of offering an escape. In many ways, Mihoyo's mastery of anime is closer to a Japanese company than Chinese company, it is not something you can just hire a couple of artists for. Likewise, the western market will always be 15-20% of the overall revenue for gacha games at best, it is difficult for western companies to justify making them with a AAA budget.
It is also incredibly hard to make a cross-platform PVE game on PC, Console, and Mobile look this good. It is not something you get from just licensing Unity. There are maybe a handful of companies out there capable of dropping 100 million dollars on a game like this, but until their main cash cow die, which studio dares to take this kind of risk? The tier 2-3 companies are simply not capable of spending 100 million dollars even if they went all in. I don't see a real competitor in two years, not even from Tencent and Netease, the bar is that high.
How You Should Approach It As A Player
If you are not a fan of gacha games, no problem! The best way is to play it like a free AAA game with unlimited free DLC's. With the amount of money this game makes, in a few years it will have more content than any other open-world game, and the developer will also be more generous over time as end game contents become more abundant. As their tools mature, the amount of time it takes to release contents across all platforms at the same time will shrink significantly, there will also be more events they can queue up. Every F2P player can get at least one five star character without rerolling if they complete most of the quests and use up their gifted currencies. I expect 100% F2P players will get at least 4 five-stars per year, 3 from pity, 1 from luck. I believe F2P with limited resources is a lot more fun and only spend money to support the developer. I am still 100% F2P on Genshin Impact as of today, because getting 20 pulls from the monthly card is not that exciting. I will wait for a one-time-only deal later in the game's life cycle.
For players who want to be a bit more involved, you can buy a monthly card, do your dailies, enjoy new content, enjoy the thrills of pulls, and pity 5 stars. Once Mihoyo gets a stable end game loop out there, they will definitely loosen up on resins. Just don't expect to play it like a Path of Exile season start. Save currencies and pity timer for a banner you want. Take it slow! Gacha games are designed to be played over many years, alongside other games. Take your Cyberpunk 2077 break, take your Call of Duty break, but in the end, there is simply no anime ARPG competition on any platform, and if you are into this kind of game, you will be back.

Being Frugal in NYC

NYC Frugal Tips

Manhattan NYC is very expensive. Although I make a fairly substantially large income from varying businesses, I am still VERY very frugal. It is a game to me. I can't help it, I enjoy it. Here's what I do, you are welcome to take my tips or even give me suggestions. I'm not counting in any business expenses.

RENT- This one I cannot avoid. I was "convinced and hoodwinked" by my previous girlfriend into getting a really nice apartment, only to break up a few months later and be stuck with this fat ass rent. I refuse to move out because I love this place so much. Solution? I eventually got a new girlfriend, we split the rent and a lot of the home expenses.
Coffee - Although I love coffee so much, I really just need the caffeine content. I'll either buy my own coffee grounds from amazon, or I'll take a caffeine/theanine capsule occasionally. If I really need the energy and productivity I'll take 100mg (a half) of Modafinil prescribed by my doctor for free. OCCASIONALLY, I'll get a $1 iced coffee from taco bell, they're the only ones that seem to have it this cheap haha. You wont EVER catch me at starbucks or Dunkin, F that what am I rich! haha. My bank Capital one usually has a coffee shop inside, where if you use your capital one debit card you get 50% off. I'll usually flash them my capital one debit for the 50% off, but use my chase sapphire reserve for the 3x points on it, double win.
Clothes - I love clothes as a guy. However I cannot get myself to spend on clothes because I already have clothes. They need to be really torn and tattered or holy for me to replace them. I'm embarrassed to say this, but I'll find great clothes of brands I like on ebay or poshmark, second hand. RARELY will I buy new or in person. I HATE paying retail for anything. My parents always insist on gifting me something for bday or xmas, I'll always suggest shoes and underwear. The other day I walked by a Levis store, my GF makes fun of me for always having a hole in the crotches of my pants, I don't know why but this happens to all my pants; anyway checked out some sales, they had 70% off PLUS an extra 20% off for signing up to their rewards card. Too good of a deal at 90% off, I bought some new good quality jeans and pants thatll last me for years.
Alcohol - I've been abstaining from alcohol here and there. Dry January has been extremely productive to me that it makes me never want to go back. I truly don't really miss it. Living in Manhattan, I live near hoboken NJ where there's a beer distributor. Once a month, Id buy a few 30 packs just to keep stocked at home at cheap prices. When I used to throw "parties", I used to buy cheap liquor and pour them into expensive bottles. I began doing this when I realized so many ungrateful people would come to my place, and drink my stuff dry. Well now ya get the cheap stuff ya freeloaders.
Going Out - Prepandemic. I LOVED going out. In manhattan, you have the best of the best in terms of bars clubs and restaurants. Expensive though. Solution? Be friends with bartenders and club promoters and club owners and managers. Pre-covid, Id hang out at this bar called Hidden Lane. My best friend was the head bartender, and my friends worked there as well. Id drink for free all night and so would whoever my date was, Id just tip the staff. Then, I'd go out to one of the clubs with my promoter friends. For those that don't understand this "promoter" term: Nightlife Clubs will literally pay a fat salary to these promoters to bring out beautiful girls and keep them at the "table" and the club would provide free bottles of vodka, tequila, beers, champagne, and even food sometimes. My promoter buddies would text me "hey man come out and help me tonight, so many girls at my table I can't entertain alone". As a single guy, this would be a no brainer, drink for free all night w/ my friends AND get to be around beautiful single women. Being in the city, Id citibike (bike share) to the club or bar, and uber or lyft back.
Food - I don't believe in going cheap when it comes to groceries because the food you eat is your HEALTH. With that said, Trader Joes is insanely cheap. There are only a few things I'll buy organic and buy lean meats, but everything else is for the most part cheap. I'll spend $50 a week, $100 a week for the 2 of us.
CAR - The beauty of living SMACK dab in the middle of Manhattan is not needing a car. I wont even take the subway. I literally citibike everywhere, my annual $160 a year membership is free because I participate in a program called Bike Angels, by inadvertently rebalancing bike stations, Id earn perks rewards and free membership. At the start of the pandemic, I bought myself a 15 year old little mini cooper so I can go on road trips and trips to the beach since things were closed. I paid $2200 for the car, another $1700 on maintenance and preventative maintenance, and $30 a month on insurance, and very little on gas since it's a 4-banger, I hardly use it, but Its there when I need a car as we love to escape the city.
Weed - I like to be very productive and weed doesn't allow that for me. However I occasionally hit my bowl or weed pen, just once or twice before a movie on a friday night. A gram will last me literally MONTHS.
Credit cards- My favorite topic! Credit cards can be a double edged sword. Use them wrecklessly and the 16-24% interest will murder you. Use them correctly, and they are your best friends.
I use the chase 'trifecta'-
Chase biz ink preferred for wifi bills, cell phone bill, shipping, social media ads and get back 3x points per $1.
Chase Sapphire Reserve (the main card)- for 3x on food , dining, transportation, drinks, parking, tolls, etc. I also get 10x on lyft, 15% off lyft, $60 a year on doordash, airport lounge access, and a bunch of other features, $300 travel credit a year, etc . It's a $450 a year card, but after crunching numbers not only does it come out to free, but the benefits greatly outweigh the costs.
Chase Freedom unlimited- on everything else not mentioned above at 1.5x per $1.
Chase Biz ink unlimited - on everything else business related.
Chase allows me to combine all these points together and if I use them through Sapphire Reserve's portal, they are worth 50% more! If you are even slicker you can transfer them to airline transfer partners and find even cheaper flights and better deals. This has allowed me to never have paid for a flight for me or my girlfriend in years, in probably like 6-7 years.
VERY IMPORTANT- I keep it on autopay, ALWAYS pay your balances off in full. NEVER ever pay interest. i always say id rather lose a finger than ever pay interest. I have autopay on a safety measure, I actually pay the balances off once a week usually on fridays and mondays , so I can watch my weekend damage, but also to keep my balance always at zero to keep any balance from being reported to credit bureau's. This keeps my credit score at 800+ which in turn allows me to get very cheap lending for business purposes.

TAXES - Another important topic. Without going into too much detail. I'm able to create LLCs and SCorps for my businesses and holdings, allowing myself to pretty much expense a good portion of my expenses. I even file as a loss in some cases for some businesses, according to my accountant's strategy. When I "trade up" properties , I avoid paying Capital Gains taxes by deffering into the new investment property , I also max out my IRA for a free tax savings. Taxes are a place where people spend the majority of their income. I have friends that make 300k a year, but really they make 150k a year due to their restrictions to play with tax loopholes as wage earners. Taxes suck.

Buy ONLY TO REPLACE- This is a little out of place after taxes but I am human and prone to sin and purchases, but I've taught myself to buy things ONLY to replace the current one I have. I want the new iphone (biz expense), ONLY if I trade in my current one. I want the new mac mini m1, again only if I sell my current one on ebay or marketplace, I want the new v11 vacuum but only if i sell my current v8, etc you get the point. This way the trade in value of the "older model item" goes towards paying of the new model item. I also get to live very minimal and own only what I need and no clutter.
Monthly Streaming Apps- Netflix is now $18 a month! F that, we use my girlfriends fathers account. HBOMax and Hulu I group share buy and pay $3 a month. Amazon Prime is the only one I buy annually at retail, I actually do use prime shopping and video though. Youtube is my most prized app. I learn so much from youtube that I need and deserve the ad-free premium. I refuse to pay $15 a month for youtube, so I'll use my sisters college email for a college discount of 50% off. I don't ever listen to music, but we use my girlfriends spotify app on all our echo devices.
Unrelated tip- your internet provider charges you for renting you your routemodem. It's usually $15-20 a month! Buy a compatible used routemodem on ebay for like $20, BAM $240 annual savings.
LIQUIDS- by this I mean shampoo, conditioner ,hand soap, body wash, dish soap, all purpose cleaner, windex, etc. I buy all these by the gallon on amazon. If you do the math it comes out to pennies per FL OZ. I keep them in nice dispensers instead of buying and replacing one time use store bought dispensers. Same for TP and paper towels. I buy in bulk- I try to get TP down to 33 cents a roll, and PT down to 82 cents a roll.

It's possible to live frugally and still enjoy life. I think one of the most important things is what you do with your free time. You can either sit around and waste time playing video games or whatever your vice is or you can teach yourself new skills constantly that can be useful and worth money in the real world. Money left over from savings goes into stock portfolio, ROTH IRA, index funds, investment properties, or reinvest in my businesses. Skills pay the Bills!

Google Play Fake Reviews: Why is Google allowing this?

I've stopped purchasing on the Playstore and I stay away from it now because

Google Play allows app developers to pay people to leave positive reviews (developers use Micro Jobs to do this. Despite it being against their policy.

How do I know this? Because I used to do Micro Jobs 6 odd years ago when I was bored at home..there are a LOT of micro jobs for leaving fake reviews. How it works? Theres a big list of jobs you can choose to do, IE proof read this article, download this app and come back and tell me in 120 words what you think, leave comments on selected YouTube videos, upvote YouTube videos, download an app from the Playstore and leave a 5 star reviews that says "X=Y", go to this website and click this link...ect.

Google Play is allowing tons and tons off apps that are potentially dangerous to the user or are known to be dangerous to the user multimine

check out the reviews, again inundated with fake 5 star reviews and not a single real review about the app actually paying out, so what is the app collecting and sending from your phone? The developmers have the same tactic which you can see in the reviews. They pretend that you're mining ETH/BTC and not a single real person has gotten paid and the BTC that people do mine, it disappears all the time so people cannot get enough to withdraw, it's all wirtten in black and white in the reviews.
Pi Network
this has been proven time and time again to be a scam , just have a look through reddit
World News: Breaking News, All in One Feed Reader
This app developer is extremely dodgy and rude ( I've got an email trail with him). His app has gambling links in it and when you open the app a full screen ads pops up advertising his gambling website, without being able to get rid of it till its done. It is a paid app that has no ads. But it does ;) he specifically makes sure there isn't ads in this version because it's the paid version. The free has ads...but* now he's changed his Playstore app page to 'contains ads'. It doesn't contain ads from his AdSense account..he uses his own in app ads (code) to advertise his gambling website to everyone from kids up. The website is also a legitimate scam. ( I've written to Google extensively about this guy and forwarded our emails to Google as well as all the proof, Google said they'd look into it and months later they struck his app down, but only the paid one..then a few days later, he's got his app back up. He just needed to change a few backend code to comply with Google....thing is, he hasn't changed anything! His full screen ad to his scam gambling website are still all there. And who knows what his apps even sniffing out*
PHT cloud earning
This one is a scam that's collecting your data and promising kids a rich future in their fake crypto currency
Fair Go Pokies online
This is an actual gambling app that's rated for 3 year olds. I have reported it many times for months, other people have aswel, yet Google seem think Gambling apps are fine for 3+ year olds, Google have been informed about this but Google WILL NOT enforce their own policies on its developmers which is harming kids and our privacy
This is just a few off the top of my head. All these apps have extremely concerning reviews. Also all the positive reviews are all extremely fake.
How do I know they're fake? Well like I said earlier, I used to do Micro Jobs and it's full of jobs asking to leave positive reviews on their Google Play store app. If you have a look at the positive reviews in every single one of the apps I posted, you will see that all the positive reviews are exactly the same (minus a few purposefully placed grammatical and spelling errors), all say the exact same thing pretty much and look how people post the same emojis along with very similar, almost word for word reviews.
I've reported the reviews many times on these apps. And none of the obvious fake reviews have ever been removed. I believe Google to have given up on the Playstore all together. There is like 80/20 of apps that are very suspicious or are definitely fake and scans 80% Then there's 20% of real apps.
I have checked a lot of the developers out over the course of my research into this and found that most 90+% of these apps come from Asia, specifically India. Nothing against India the country, but the people are absolutely appallingly when it comes to scams. We all know that Indians are the biggest scammers, so why isn't Google doing anything about these apps? And why isn't Google doing anything about the massive amount of Indian scammers on their Playstore, let alone all the other people who are posting useless apps that aren't tested. Google is more interested in bringing in the developer fees rather than the community who buys the apps.
Most of the kids games are literal gambling apps by definition. All these free games that are not games, but money printing machines for the Devs. Put out a free app and then make it near impossible to continue after level 10 unless you pay massive prices for coins and such. Today's kids are having their gaming experience ruined by greed and their childhoods taken away from them unless they pay to progress. Do I think kids should just play games all day? No, I believe they should play outside and explore the dirt. But as a gamer myself, I believe kids should be allowed to spend hours playing video games too. When I was a kid, I'd play donkey Kong country for hrs and no paywalls to continu
I used to run my own online business a few years ago now and I used to market through Google ads, this opened me up to a magnitude of scams from Indians. Every single day I could guarantee I would have one cold call me, claiming to work for Google, wanting me to sign up through their marketing platform. Which kind you again, they claim they're working with Google.
1 of those calls was an actual person working for Google... Well actually he didn't work for Google, although his email signature says he does, he says he does and his company says they do. However, they are working contracted to Google. What they really are is just a call centre in India, that Google has outsourced their Adsense to. I confirmed he was a 'google partner' by checking out his partner id against Google's partner id check.( this is just way of saying they're a telemarketer that's contracted by Google to bring in sales to their Adsense.)
This guy wouldn't leave me alone, called me 3 times a day to try get me to put more money into my marketing, then he wanted to take over my account so he could manage it...this guy was full on trying to rob me of every cent I had. (He didn't get anything)
Every day/week the Playstore top 10 is the exact same apps. Intact they really haven't changed in a couple years. Google's Editors favourite apps, is always only ever the same apps that have paid to be Google's Editors favourite.
I left apple 8 years ago for Android...loved it! But today I feel like my expensive phone is an expensive spam farm because Google have drop the ball. I feel I miss apples clean look and lack of rubbish. Their app store is dynamically changing. I don't want to go back to apple cause their phones suck..but I'd rather an iPhone right now than be inundated with rubbish apps and nothing but fake review after fake review.
Google doesnt care about the Playstore and that's evident by my evidence in this post.
Google has allowed for almost a year now, for this one specific Gambling app aimed at kids, to exist on their store. The store is full of apps that are completely useless and apps that are so bad, they shouldn't have even been able to make it on to the playstore.
Just look at this what sort of app store is this when it allows crap like this.
Why am I writing this?
Because I'm done working for free for Google, doing a job they should be doing. But nothing I do changes anything, no matter how much you report, Google doesn't do anything. So I'm hoping maybe someone will see this and sort this shit out. Why not even have an algorithm that flags an app as a potential risk automatically when it's received X amount of 3 and blow star reviews ÷ the amount of downloads. When an all flags, you can check it out, this would solve the mass amounts of reports because you won't be having to sift through them, you'll just need to check the app out that's got flagged.
I know this is super long, it's so long that I cbf writing a TLDR because I believe it needs to be read as a whole.
And fix the top apps..how is there two QR readers in the top 8? How TF is Australia Post app in the top 20?
And Service NSW #1? 🤣
how TF is this even in the top 50 when it's rating is 1.8 stars
Why arent apps like these ones in the top ever? fuel meter
Motion Ninja
My Budget Book
Soul Browser
Pulse Messenger
Simpan
Easy Join
aCalander

I am 30 years old making $135,000 live in San Francisco, CA and work as a Scientist

Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: $25,000; I didn’t start contributing until last year. I got out of grad school end of 2017, and once I got my first job I focused on saving up a good emergency fund since I live in such a HCOL city.
Savings account balance: $25,000; $20K emergency fund, $5K for car down payment (I’ll be making this purchase soon)
Checking account balance: $1,300; I try to only keep bill money in there + $500 buffer, payday is in a few days so this is low
HSA balance: $3,600; Since I chose the HSA plan at work, my company fills it up to the deductible every year. This is my money to keep, and this has been racking up after a few years of low medical expenses. It came in handy when I had to have surgery this year, I was able to pay exclusively from this account.
Credit card debt: none, I pay balances off each month
Student loan debt: $20,000; This is all from undergrad tuition: my living expenses were paid by working and some help from my parents, my grad school was paid with fellowships. Payments have been suspended during COVID. My original plan was to pay it off this year, but COVID and everything else has made me rethink that. Instead, I’ve decided to put money toward moving (with rent prices down I was able to move to a much nicer place for only a little more) and putting a hefty down payment on a reasonably priced car. With help of my bonus and tax refund I can definitely clear my debt in 2021, but I’ll wait until we know more about what Biden plans to do about student debt.

Section Two: Income
Income Progression:
• During college: $10K-13K a year; this was through various part time jobs in retail + working at a lab at my university later in college. It wasn’t much but it paid for my living expenses. I’m really glad I worked in college, although I wish maybe I had worked a little less so I could have more of a social life. Regardless it set me up to be a lot more independent than most of my peers
• Grad school: $30K a year stipend; Right after college I went straight into grad school to get a PhD in biomedical science. Programs in this field usually cover tuition and provide a stipend since you’re working in the lab of your advisor. Tip for anyone looking at getting a PhD in this field: if a school offers you admission but won’t cover tuition and stipend through research or teaching assistantships, DON’T DO IT. It’s a red flag, plus you’re better off minimizing debt if you want to stay in academia.
• First job in biotech: $97K salary + up to 10% bonus; Once I graduated, I got a job at a biotech company on the peninsula. I didn’t negotiate because I didn’t know that I had any leverage to since I was just coming out of school. Turns out negotiating really isn’t part of the company culture and people really are paid the same market rate for the same work within the company so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Typically get a 5% cost of living raise every year.
• Promotion early this year: $123K salary + up to 10% bonus; this was something that was expected, my boss and I had been in discussions about my work
• Unexpected raise: $135K salary + up to 10% bonus; Recently got an unexpected pay raise, I suspect this was pre-emptive since I’ve recently picked up extra work that makes me more marketable. I probably would have asked for this eventually, but they beat me to it. My company works really hard to make sure people feel well-compensated and appreciated, which really helps when the workload gets stressful.

Main Job Monthly Take Home:
Deductions:
• Roth 401K: $1,125 a month (10% gross salary)
• Medical/dental: covered 100% by work.
Monthly take home after deductions: $6,300

Section Three: Expenses
Rent: $2,900; I live alone in a one bedroom apartment with my cat. Moved from a studio this summer, I would never had been able to get a place this nice (nice building, remodeled kitchen+bathroom) without the COVID rent drops.
Renters insurance: $15
Savings contribution: $1000 a month at least. Right now that goes towards a car down payment. After that, it’ll be split to extra debt repayment (to pay student loan faster) and short terms savings like for vacations.
Student loan: $300 a month (suspended due to COVID)
Donations: $175 a month; Split amongst food banks, KQED, ACLU, and planned parenthood. Every time I get a raise I pick up a new donation. I also gave about $2K this year in ad hoc donations.
Electric: ~$35 a month. Steam heat (radiator) is free in my building so this doesn’t fluctuate in winter.
Wifi: ~$35 a month
Cellphone: $110; includes iphone payment that ends in a year
Subscriptions: $50; Netflix, hulu, amazon prime, hbo max (I really should cut on of these)
Car insurance: $100; Two years ago I gave my car back to my family for my brother to use after I moved to SF, but I still came back and drove it enough for me to need to keep my own insurance on it just in case. When I buy the new car it’ll get transferred to that one.

Day One (Monday)
8:00 a.m. — My alarm goes off, and I’m technically awake but still so tired. I cuddle with the cat and catch up on youtube for a while before I get up and make some tea.
9:00 a.m. — I settle in the start the day: mostly just triaging emails and dealing with some small tasks so I can get them off the list. I’ve been working from home since March; I work in data analysis, so my computer is my lab. For the most part it’s been pretty successful, but sometimes I fall for the lure to work in my pajamas. After about an hour of work I quickly shower and get ready for my first meeting.
12:00 p.m. — My meetings are done so I heat up lunch- today its pasta leftovers from last night, along with a coke. I spend the break watching a West Wing episode, I’ve been bingeing recently and I’m almost done!
2:30 p.m. — I hit a lull in work, so I get my bags and mask and walk to the grocery store. The best part of working from home is being able to go do errands on off hours, especially now that we’re all trying to avoid crowds. I listen to podcasts on the way over: this time I’m catching up on the Wall Street Journal Money Briefing.
2:45 p.m. — I buy my groceries for the week: ingredients for chopped salads, a few snacks, and a few frozen meals. Since I have a lot of leftover pasta to eat, I don’t need as many things as I usually do, so I use the opportunity to stock up on a few staples. You have to think ahead when you have to carry everything home every week! $48.76
3:30 p.m. — I get home an put everything away. I eat a lacey cookie and make sparkling water out of my sodastream while I settle back into work. Right now I’m doing all the prep for a big analysis coming up soon, so it’s a lighter week. Once that data comes in, I’ll be working like crazy.
6:00 p.m. — Done for the day! I decompress and play silly games on my phone, then get up to make dinner while I watch more West Wing on my iPad. Tonight’s dinner is chopped salad with romaine, cucumber, tomato, green apple, bacon, blue cheese, avocado, and balsamic dressing. I only need part of the green apple for the salad so I slice the rest to eat on the side. I also crack open a shandy to have with dinner.
8:00 p.m. — My period is coming and I have a hankering for sweets. I warm up a slice of pancake bread I got today and try a little bit of the peppermint bark liqueur I found this weekend. This combo is everything!
9:30 p.m. — I’m trying to go to bed earlier so I turn off the TV, settle into pajamas, and read before bed while cuddling with the cat. Right now I’m reading Dying: A memoir by Cory Taylor. I turn out the lights at 10 and listen to the Dear Hank & John podcast on a sleep timer.
Day One total: $48.76

Day Two (Tuesday)
7:30 a.m. — Even though I went to bed relatively early I still wake up exhausted. I hit the snooze button a few times before getting up, making tea, and getting ready.
11:00 a.m. — Done with morning meetings so I take an early lunch, more leftover pasta. I also clean up around the house for a little while, it’s hard for me to concentrate in a messy environment.
2:00 p.m. — Feeling sluggish so I make another cup of tea before my last meeting.
3:30 p.m. — My meeting is over, so I take a minute to take care of some life admin before I get back to work. I write out my rent check, drop it off in the office downstairs, and send my mom a link to an immersion blender since she wants to know what I want for Christmas. I see Naturalizer is having a 50% off sale on boots so I buy 2 pairs. My boots wore out last season and I still haven’t replaced them. I also set up a monthly donation for the Oakland food bank (see monthly expenses). I recently got a raise and want to up my donations. Since I already give to SF food bank I thought I’d spread the love. $107.43
6:00 p.m. — The last thing I need to do for work today requires running some code for a while, so I start that before making dinner. Tonight it’s another chopped salad and some sparkling water. I eat while watching more West Wing.
8:00 p.m. — Pre-period cravings are kicking my ass (or at least that’s my excuse). I have another slice of pancake bread and some tea while browsing NPR’s 2020 book concierge and tagging books on my libby account. I also text my boyfriend for a while and we make plans to hang out later this week (standard COVID note: he also lives alone/WFH and we live in walking distance to each other, so we consider ourselves one bubble).
10:30 p.m. — I get ready for bed and read more of my book. Light’s out by 11.
Day Two total: 107.43

Day Three (Wednesday)
7:30 a.m. — My alarm goes off, and the cat jumps into bed immediately for cuddles. We hang out for a few minutes then I get up, make tea, and start getting ready for the day.
9:00 a.m. — I start work, this morning it’s a bunch of code to review. Queue staring at my screens for three hours.
12:00 p.m. — Lunchtime! More leftover pasta, I’m getting bored of these leftovers but I don’t want to waste food. I have that and some more sparkling water.
1:00 p.m. — I recently got a new ipad, and I need to drop off the old one at Fedex to get the trade-in credit. I walk over to drop it off and enjoy the fresh air. On the way back I order a peppermint mocha from Starbucks on the mobile app. I try to order from the million independent coffee shops near my house most of the year, but the holiday drinks bring me back to Starbucks every time. During the walk I listen to podcast about Biden's cabinet picks with some interesting discussion about foreign policy. I don't know enough to have a strong opinion yet, but I would like to learn more! $5.50
4:00 p.m. — I just spent a good chunk of my afternoon talking with so many people just to make a small update to code. So frustrating! I'm tempted to make a drink to have while I finish work, but I resist and just have more sparkling water.
4:30 p.m. — I get a call from the medical center I got a procedure from last month. They said they sent me a statement, but they somehow not only got my street number wrong but also the zip code. I pay the $140 bill using money in my HSA (that's money put in by my company, so I don't count as an expense).
6:00 p.m. — I just spend way too much time ironing out another issue, I’ve earned my drink. I crack open a beer and make another chopped salad for dinner. Tonight I’m drinking a Baked Hawaii pastry stout from Temascal brewing. It’s absolutely delicious, but halfway through drinking the can I realize it’s 11% ABV!! Tonight just got interesting.
9:00 p.m. — Turns out drunk at home me isn’t that interesting: I spend the night watching West Wing and texting a friend. I’m in bed by 11ish.
Day three total: $5.50

Day Four (Thursday)
7:30 a.m. — I get up and make tea like I always do. I decide to actually get ready properly with makeup and jewelry today so that’s new.
9:00 a.m. — Start work, this morning I’m working on an internal presentation.
11:00 a.m. — I prep an apple and peanut butter for a snack.
12:00 p.m. — I heat up the last of leftover pasta for lunch. Good, I’m really getting sick of it.
1:00 p.m. — I sit down for my meeting. I present the first half, then spend second half munching on a few sour jellybeans I had left from last week.
3:00 p.m. — I make more tea and move to the couch to finish up my workday. I also customize my imperfect produce order for next week. I don't actually get a ton of produce from them, but I really like some of their meat and dairy options. I get apples, oranges, kiwi, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, avocados, bread, salmon, chicken breast, bacon, snack cheese, and some peppermint chocolate covered pretzels. That, plus my hello fresh coming next week, will be most of my food a few weeks. Those will get charged to my account next week when they’re delivered. I try to spend $250 a month of groceries, but craft beer and fun cheese sometimes make me go over.
5:30 p.m. — I’m sick of working, so I get changed out of sweats into decent clothes and walk over to my boyfriend’s place. I stop by the market on the way over to buy tea and a can of water chestnuts (the only other thing I need for meals next week). $7.58
6:00 p.m. — I get to my boyfriend’s place just as the food delivery arrives, I get chicken tikka masala, rice, and garlic naan. I only eat half so the rest is saved for leftovers. We split a stone espresso stout and talk. Since vaccine schedules look so good and cancellation policies are great, it makes sense to consider booking a trip to Hawaii for late summer. We agree to think about it and pull the trigger before Christmas. $25 for Indian food
7:00 p.m. — I’m not a fan of the stout so I open up a cider. We settle in and watch TV
9:45 p.m. — Technically we're under a 10pm curfew, although I can't really figure out what that means this time. I'm tired anyway, so I say goodbye to my boyfriend and walk home. No one is out, so I walk home with my mask off. Something about being in nice clothes and without a mask on hits harder than it probably should. I miss normal city life so much. Just as I think that a big-ass raccoon pops up walking on the next block, which ironically never happened to me in normal city life even though it totally sounds like it would. Luckily the raccoon is more scared of me than I am of it, and I make it home in one piece.
10:30 p.m. — I make a cup of decaf tea and settle into bed. I decide to start a new book Survivor Song, I find zombie-ish apocalyptic books oddly comforting right now (finished Severance by Ling Ma a few weeks ago). This one is about a rabies-like disease, really glad that raccoon ran away earlier.
3:00 a.m. — Oops, got so engrossed with the book I stay up incredibly late to read the whole thing in one sitting. I reset my alarm to 9. WFH for my company has its perks!
Day four total: $32.58

Day Five (Friday)
10:30 a.m. — I accidentally sleep through the alarm and wake up in a panic. It isn't the end of the world, but I still go straight to my laptop while still in pajamas and start work. There was a mini crisis early this morning that luckily I wouldn't have been much help in, but I spend the rest of the morning dealing with that and various other fires.
12:00 p.m. — I shower and get dressed. Lunch today is frozen lamb vindaloo for lunch and a coke to try and perk me up.
1:00 p.m. — I’m still predictably exhausted, so I make some tea and try to power through a task before a meeting.
3:00 p.m. —More tea and a lacey cookie before meeting.
6:00 p.m. —I still have more work to do but I'm drained, so I call it a night. I heat up last night's Indian food, grab some more sparkling water and catch up on youtube to decompress.
8:00 p.m. —I clean up a little round the house while I watch the new Grey’s Anatomy. I can’t believe I’m still watching this show.
11:00 p.m. — Watched more West Wing while curled up on the couch. I head to bed; I want to get up at a decent time.
Day five total: $0

Day Six (Saturday)
8:00 a.m. — My alarm goes off. I stay in bed browsing the internet on my iPad.
9:00 a.m. — I get up, make some tea and prep breakfast. Today I try the pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes from Damn Delicious. My resolution this year was to make 50 new recipes and I’m on track to make it! These pancakes are fantastic, I’ll definitely make them again. I pack up the leftovers to bring to my boyfriend’s house later.
10:00 a.m. — I settle in on the couch and spend the rest of the morning playing games on my ipad and listening to podcasts.
12:30 p.m. — I jump in the shower and get ready. I’m training for when we’re back in real society again, so I actually do my hair and makeup today. Today I play with eyeshadow and do a purple smokey eye. My boyfriend texts to say that he already ate lunch so I heat up frozen lamb vindaloo for lunch.
1:30 p.m. — Time to head to my boyfriend’s house. I pack up my overnight bag and the pancakes, put my boots on, and head out. I drop my stuff off at my boyfriend’s house and we head out to walk around the city. We started doing this when the pandemic started, it’s a great way to spend the afternoon. On the walk I finally see the parrots of Telegraph hill, although we aren’t at telegraph hill. They’re really cute, but so loud, I’m glad I don’t live closer to them!
3:00 p.m. —We stop by a place to get Irish coffee but the line is massive (this is the last weekend of outdoor dining, so everyone is out). I don't want to wait in line, so we keep walking to find somewhere else to go.
3:30 p.m. — We see a Mexican restaurant and decide to stop for snacks and drinks. As a bonus the tables are really spaced out and there aren’t a ton of people seated. We want to help businesses out and enjoy a last weekend being able to eat outside, but it seems counterproductive to eat at a crowded place. We get 2 margaritas each and split some appetizers, making sure to tip extra. $51.26
5:30 p.m. — As we walk back towards my boyfriend’s apartment, we see that the cocktail bar he really wanted to try has a ton of tables available. We pick a table far away from the others and have 2 more cocktails each. I also get some garlic shrimp noodles. We each tip extra here too. $66.71
7:00 p.m. — We trudge up the hill and head to my boyfriend’s apartment. I buy some snacks and a la croix at a corner store on the way. $7.00
7:15 p.m. — We spend the rest of evening watching TV and sobering up. We end up going to bed pretty early, around 10.
Day six total: $124.97

Day Seven (Sunday)
9:00 a.m. — I wake up and laze around in bed for a while. After I get up we eat the leftover pancakes and I help my boyfriend with some chores that require 2 people (there are a few disadvantages to living alone).
11:00 a.m. — I gather my things and walk home. Once I’m there I drop off my things, and head straight back out to grab a few items. I’m out of body wash so I walk to Walgreens to buy that and a soda. On the way home I realize I don’t have any food for today (Hello Fresh is coming tomorrow), so I pop into the deli and get a sandwich and some chips. The sandwiches are huge so it’s enough food for lunch and dinner. $27.20
3:00 p.m. — The rest of day is spent alternating between cleaning and hanging out on the couch. I look at my email to see that Aerie is doing 10 for $35 on underwear, so I fill up my cart with 10 pairs + a swimsuit and sweater. I haven’t bought any clothes this year, but now things are starting to wear out so I need to replace things all at once. $89.47
7:00 p.m. — I toast up the other half of my sandwich. I spend the rest of the evening reading and watching TV, I’m in bed by 11.
Day seven total: $116.67

Total for week: $435.91
Grocery + Dining Out: $239.01
Fun + Entertainment: $0
Home + Health: $10
Clothes + Beauty: $196.90
Transportation: $0
Lastly, reflect on your diary: This definitely was a more expensive week than normal. I’ve been delaying buying clothing for a long time, so I finally have started to catch up. I tend to do that after I get a raise. This was also the last week of outdoor dining for SF so I used this as an excuse to eat out more, I feel so bad for all the workers about to get laid off again.

Have a happy and safe holidays everyone!
(Edited because I found a few typos I missed when I proofread, so embarrassing! TA me from 4 years ago would be so ashamed haha)

iphone game apps that pay real money video

The premise is identical to other game apps that pay: install sponsored games, level up, and earn coins. 50,000 coins is worth $5 , and you can redeem coins for free gift cards to stores like Amazon, Groupon, Walmart, Google Play credit, and even PayPal cash. This is one of those apps that pay real money to PayPal. On every eligible purchase, you get amazing cashback from SavingStar. ... Cash wheel PayPal is a 3 real slot game having 27 pay lines and 200 credits. Having promising bonus rounds, this game is loved by all. The rounds include: Cash Wheel feature The apps below are some of my favorite apps that pay you real money that you can download from the App Store or Google Play Store (they’ll all free). They don’t necessarily have a playing game component, but they are still legitimate ways to make money from your phone. If there is a particular type of game that you enjoy playing, such as a trivia or game-show format, there are certainly options available that are free and can win you real money. If you find yourself spending hours on your phone surfing the web mindlessly or scrolling through social media, try one of these apps instead. Money Apps That Pay You for Simple Tasks ; Money Making Survey Apps That Pay Real Money. While you’ll find the most lucrative apps listed above, there are plenty of other opportunities available with money making survey apps and the best survey sites. Here are some alternatives: 10. These apps pay anywhere from a few pennies to a few dollars for your efforts. With so many apps out there offering cash for your time, we decided to go through and find the top apps that pay you to play games. 10 Best Apps That Pay To Play Games For Free. With that said, let’s get started. Lucktastic (iOS) allows users to play with 100% free scratch cards to win loads of free money. Just pick your theme, swipe digital scratch-offs, and test your luck to earn real money daily. This gaming app is a free and fun way to win real cash and prizes and earn rewards. Even if you just login daily to collect the daily bonus, you can save up for an Amazon gift card in a few days. 5 Best Apple Apps That Pay You Money . 5) Survey Mini. Survey Mini is a popular iOS app that has helped thousands of users from around the world generate extra beer money with their iPhone and iPads. Apps that Pay You to Play Games on iPhone. While there are many game apps that pay you real money for both Android and iOS devices, there are a few that are exclusive to iOS devices. Some of the best include: 13. HQ Trivia. Available on: iOS; Play a new quiz with word games and trivia every day with HQ Trivia! 6 Game Apps That Pay Real Money Advertiser Disclosure This article/post contains references to products or services from one or more of our advertisers or partners.

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