Garmin Instinct 2 Solar — Solar Powered Smartwatch /  by Adrian Galli

Image courtesy of Garmin

I’m fascinated by wearable technology and no stranger to it. I’ve worn my Apple Watch every day since I received mine on April 28th, 2015.

The power and future of wearables is luminous and we are only seeing the beginning.

This new smartwatch from Garmin is very interesting. A solar powered watch with health and fitness tracking, GPS, and more.

Gone are the days of charging your smartwatch every night or few days thanks to “power glass” which uses the sun to charge the device. 

However, for all the fitness and health features of the Instinct 2, the specifications suggest it needs 3 hours a day in direct sunlight—that is an unhealthy amount of time for you to be in the sun. 

While you could reapply sunscreen over and over, this is time in the sun to keep the Instinct 2 operating is an interesting dichotomy of the device. Health and fitness while possibly negatively impacting your health and fitness. 

I suppose this Solar power sharing feature isn’t to replace “traditional” charging but to supplement it—my observation isn’t a criticism so much as it is to add context to the device’s crowning feature. 

Garmin Instinct 2 Solar

Rakuten — Maximize your Points Earnings /  by Adrian Galli

Image courtesy of Rakuten

While I’ve talked about fun cards, services, and other financial though provoking topics, there are still more topics to maximize the cash back or points one can accumulate.

Rakuten is a website that features hundreds of brands and effectively gives you coupons with which to shop. I’m uncertain how they get these deals—sometimes you’re getting 10x (or more!) back on ALL of your purchases from brands like Nike, Todd Snyder, Ray-ban, Grubhub, Walgreens, Apple, and more. I’m sure they’re data mining the hell out of your purchases but that’s probably happening anyway so might as well get something in return.

You get two options. One is good old fashion cash back paid to you via PayPal. Or, as I set it up, American Express Membership Rewards Points. In other words, 10x would be ten points for every dollar or 10% cash back.

For example, I recently made a little birthday present purchase for myself. I had my eye on some sunglasses from Ray-Ban. I have a minor sunglasses addiction so I might as well reduce the cost as much as possible. Good sunglasses are worth the price and with Rakuten, I received 8% cash back (or 8x Amex points).

The total came to about $180.00 and at 8x back, a cool 1440 points loaded into my American Express account. And, as a general purchase, I receive the usual 1x from my American Express. In total 1620—approximately $16.20 in cash value.

That eight percent is somewhat unusual. Most stores add 1-2x on purchases but check in daily as it fluctuates and sometimes see double point, triple, or more. Favorite your commonly shopped brands and stores and you’ll also get notified when there are double point days, specials, and the like.

Another example is Instacart. During the week, I sometimes do not want to go to the grocery store but if I need something I’ll use Instacard. My Amex Gold Card gives me 4x back on all grocery store purchases but if I order through Rakuten, I get an additional 1x. Not much but a 20% increase in what my Amex already gives me.

Putting normal spending through Rakuten adds up really quickly. Their website is easy to use and their app is available on multiple platforms. It can take a few days for your points to appear and they only “pay out” once a quarter but when you’re getting one, two, five, ten percent or more back on all your purchasing, the wait is worth it.

Since January of 2022, now April, I’ve 32,632 points. That’s an approximate $320.00 in American Express Membership points just by doing my normal spend through Rakuten. Not bad!

Optimize your spending.

Visit and signup at Rakuten.com!

P.S. There is a little bonus ($30) for using that referral link.