#and the extra 10 dollars in savings is because my debit card rounds up each transaction so the change adds up | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thereallaptoplf · 5 years

Text

31 Best Passive Income Ideas for 2019

Passive income. We all want it. We all crave it. We all want to make money without work. But are there actually any good passive income ideas that we can implement in 2019?

The answer is yes, and we’ve put together a list below of 31 ways to make passive income in 2019.

There are four main ways to earn passive income:

By investing money

By investing time

By renting things out

By getting paid to do activities you do anyway.

Below we have given you specific ideas for each of these four passive income categories for a total of 31 passive income ideas.

The most passive forms of income will require you to put up at least a little bit of money up-front.

Here are our top passive income picks for 2019.

1. Easily check to see if stores owe you money.

This one’s pretty interesting since it’s not so much passive income but rather passive savings.

The gist of it is that you get cash back on items you bought online when the price of those items drop.

It’s like price matching, but after the fact!

And there’s a new tool called Waldo that will help you get the refunds you deserve.

You simply sign up for Waldo, give it access to the email account you receive your shopping receipts at, and let Waldo get to work!

Waldo will then track the price of the item(s) you purchased and work to automatically get you a refund when the price drops.

If you’d like to start getting refunds on your online purchases, click here to sign up for Waldo.

2. Invest in Private Real Estate Deals With Only $500

Real estate is one of the classic forms of passive income: you own property, and others pay you for using it.

The downside to traditional real estate, of course, is that you typically need a lot of cash to get started.

Not so anymore with the rise of private real estate investing platforms.

We personally invest in one of these platforms called Fundrise.

Fundrise lets everyday people invest in top deals across the nation — way better deals than most people could find on their own.

It also lets you diversify your real estate holdings.

For example, I am invested in deals in 10 different states!

And for the first 90 days of your investment, Fundrise will buy your investment back at the original investment amount if for any reason you are not satisfied.

Click here to sign up to see Fundrise’s latest investment opportunities.

3. Invest in fine art with only $1,000.

Did you know that the Wall Street Journal called “the best investment of 2018”?

Fine art.

That’s right. So while you should certainly have a core investment portfolio of stocks and maybe bonds, you may want to at least consider adding some fine art to your portfolio.

I know what you’re thinking. Don’t I have to be a multimillionaire to invest in fine art?

Well, you used to be. But not anymore.

Similar to what Fundrise (see above) is doing for investment-grade real estate, Masterworks is opening up fine art investing to the masses.

Masterworks’ minimum investment is $1,000.

Click here to see Masterworks’ latest fine art offerings.

4. Open a savings account with 2.30% interest.

If you have your savings in a low-interest brick and mortar bank, it’s time to get with the times and open an online bank account.

Because they don’t have the huge overhead costs of traditional banks, online banks can pass the savings on to their customers in the form of higher interest rates.

One of our favorite online banks right now is CIT Bank Savings Builder.

This account offers a sky-high 2.30% APY if you simply make at least one monthly deposit of $100 or more.

And there are no account opening or maintenance fees, making this one of the best savings accounts on the market today.

Click here to learn more about the CIT Bank Savings Builder Account.

5. Get paid to go to stores.

Did you know there’s an app that gives you gift cards simply by walking into stores?

You don’t even have to buy anything!

It’s true!

So whether you’re a mall rat or just somebody who goes shopping every now and then, you stand to make a little extra cash this way.

Click here to download this special app and start getting paid just for walking into stores!

6. Get paid to play mobile games.

This is another one of those passive income ideas where you get paid to do something you enjoy, so it’s not really work at all.

How it works is you download a free new app, then download new mobile games through the app.

As you level up in the mobile games, you earn more points that you can redeem for gift cards at Amazon, VISA, PlayStation, Xbox, Apple, Starbucks, and more.

Click here to start winning free gift cards for playing mobile games on your phone.

7. Rent out your spare room.

Renting out lodging can be an incredible way to earn extra money.

I know some people making thousands of dollars a month, all by renting out an extra room to short-term guests.

Now, if you wanted to do this 10 years ago, you would’ve had to post an ad in the classifieds or on shady old Craigslist.

Gladly, those days are over.

You can now list your spare room on Airbnb and screen out prospective guests. (Guests are rated by their hosts for things like cleanliness and communication.)

If you’d like to sign up to become an Airbnb host, check out my article Make Extra Money with Airbnb.

8. Get paid to get gas.

GetUpside is a free app that gives you cash back for every gas station receipt you submit!

Also, if you sign up through our link, you get a 20¢ per gallon bonus the first time you fill up!

If you drive a lot (or even if you don’t), this can add up to a decent chunk of change!

Click here to download GetUpside and get a 20¢ per gallon bonus for using our link!

9. Get paid to walk.

I just made $10 for walking, paid in cash via PayPal.

It’s true!

There’s a new app, Sweatcoin, that will pay you for every step you take.

It motivates me to go for more runs, take the stairs more often, and be an all-around more active person.

Click here to check out Sweatcoin now and start getting paid to walk!

10. Invest in dividend-paying stocks.

We love dividends here at Money Done Right.

When you invest in a dividend-paying stock, you are acquiring a portion of a company that somebody else built and that thousands of other people work for, and they are giving you a portion of their profits. Blows my mind!

There are plenty of great places to open up a stock-investing account, but the one that’s getting us hot and bothered at the moment is Ally Invest.

Ally Invest is great because you can trade dividend stocks for as little as $3.95 per trade compared to $6.95 at E*TRADE and Charles Schwab.

Click here to sign up for Ally Invest to start investing in dividend stocks affordably!

Ally Invest has developed a pretty amazing platform, and no matter if the stock market goes up or done, we still get dividends deposited into our Ally Invest account every quarter!

Click here to sign up for Ally Invest to start investing in dividend stocks affordably!

11. Get paid to have an app on your phone.

There’s an app that will pay you just for having it on your phone.

It doesn’t get much more passive than that! You heard me right.

They will pay you $50 per year per device just for having your app on there!

Talk about the ultimate passive income opportunity!

If getting paid simply for having an app on your phone interests you, click here to learn more!

12. Invest $10 in small businesses and earn 5%.

Worthy Bonds is a company that provides bond funding to small businesses — and it’s letting you get a piece of the action.

See, these small businesses (obviously) pay Worthy interest on these loans, and folks like you and me can buy bonds from Worthy that pay 5% interest.

This is far more interest than you could earn in a savings account at the bank.

You can buy bonds in $10 increments and / or link your debit or credit card and round up the spare change on your purchases to invest in bonds.

Click here to sign up for Worthy and start earning 5% interest by investing in American small business.

13. Write slogans.

Are you kinda witty?

Then you may be able to make passive income just by thinking up slogans in your spare time. Here’s how it works:

Write a catchy slogan.

Upload it online here.

Get paid every time someone uses your slogan! Passive income!

Click here to learn more about earning passive income from slogans.

14. Sell your photos.

Are you good behind the camera?

Then you can make a somewhat passive side income licensing your photos online for others to download.

For example, I get all my pictures for this blog from various stock photo sites on the Internet.

And every time I download a photo, the photographer who uploaded it gets a royalty!

Licensing one picture that you take and upload now can give you cash flow forever as it’s downloaded again and again!

Click here to learn how you can get paid for your photos from home.

15. Get your bank and credit card fees refunded.

This isn’t really passive “income” per se, but it is an opportunity for you to increase your net worth somewhat passively.

There’s a new website that can get you refunds on fees like:

Overdraft fees

Monthly service fees

Minimum balance fees

ATM fees

Late fees

Wire transfer fees

Foreign transaction fees

Credit card interest charges

Click here to learn how to get your bank and credit card fees refunded.

16. Get paid for doing things you do anyway.

Swagbucks ($10 sign-up bonus) is a great app to use to make money whenever you have some downtime, say while you’re in line at the store or while watching some mindless TV program.

There are a variety of ways to make money with the Swagbucks app, including:

Playing games on your phone

Using the Swagbucks search engine

Watching videos

Taking surveys

Getting cash back on online purchases

Using coupons

And more!

Click here to download Swagbucks and get a $10 bonus for using our link!

17. Make money with your social media skills.

Do you have experience with social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.?

Then you have a very valuable 21st-century skill!

If you know your way around social media, then you can make some major dough by promoting brands on social media.

Companies are willing to pay ordinary people to help get the word out about their products and drive more sales.

But the trickiest part of this industry is finding the right opportunities.

There are a few resources out there to help social media pros land these opportunities, but the one we found to be the best is SocialSaleRep.com.

They’ve been around for a while and have several proprietary partnerships with large corporations looking for social media experts.

Click here to check out paid social media opportunities at SocialSaleRep.com!

18. Check your credit score.

While this isn’t directly a way to generate passive income, checking on your credit score and finding ways to improve it can passively grow your net worth.

How so? Well, by simply increasing your credit score a little bit, you can, for example, pay less in interest, which will grow your wealth in the long-term.

We’ve found that Credit Sesame is the best free website that can calculate and monitor your credit score.

Click here to get Credit Sesame for free — it only takes 90 seconds!

19. Use a free money-saving bot.

Sometimes the best way to make money is to save money.

Subscriptions, especially those that go unused, can add up over time.

Thankfully, there’s a free money-saving bot called Cushion that will go through all your subscriptions, let you know how much you are paying for each of them every month, and cancel them with a simple text message if you’d like.

And Cushion not only keeps track of your subscriptions, but it also negotiates your monthly bills such as cable and Internet so you keep more money in your pocket.

Cushion users have saved over $8,000,000! To learn other benefits that Cushion can offer you, check out our full-scale Cushion review.

Click here to start saving with Cushion! It’s 100% free!

20. Take online surveys.

This one’s not exactly “passive,” but it is certainly mindless.

You can take surveys when you’re binging on Netflix or in line at the grocery store or waiting to pick your kids up.

The trick is that there are only a few legit survey sites. We recommend Survey Junkie.

It’s 100% legit, and they do not send you spammy junk emails.

Their payouts are excellent, and they pay you in cash via PayPal.

Top Survey Site Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie has an 8.9/10 rating on TrustPilot — the highest of any online survey company.

And they also have some really fun surveys.

For example, in the screenshot below you’ll see a pretty awesome music review survey that I recently did. I made $50 reviewing music! ?

Click here to start making extra cash with Survey Junkie.

Now, I must tell you that not all surveys are this fun, and not all pay this well, but every once in a while you get a great one like this!

Also, it’s satisfying knowing that companies will use my opinions and inputs to make decisions about not only music, but also food, restaurants, consumer products, movies, and a lot more.

Click here to start making extra cash with Survey Junkie.

21. Get paid to lose weight.

If you can commit to shedding some pounds, it may pay off handsomely for you to cut that habit because you can literally get paid to lose weight through a new company called HealthyWage.

Check out this Good Morning America special on HealthyWage that explains how it works:

youtube

You can bet as little or as much as you want, but obviously the more you bet, the more you stand to win!

Also, you can bet on your weight loss of any period between 6 and 18 months.

Click here to see how much you could win with HealthyWage!

22. Get cash back when you shop online.

Ebates ($10 sign-up bonus if you use our link) is a free website and app that gives you up to 40% cash back at over 2,500 online stores.

If you shop online a lot (or even if you don’t), this can add up to a decent chunk of change!

Click here to get your $10 sign-up bonus sign up for Ebates and start getting cash back on online purchases today!

23. Invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

I would recommend only investing in cryptocurrencies after you’ve invested in more stable passive income opportunities such as stocks and real estate.

Nevertheless, many people have become unlikely millionaires by investing in cryptocurrencies, and the concept of cryptocurrencies is not without merit.

However, you have to know what you’re doing, or you’ll get creamed in the cryptocurrency market.

Click here to learn more about cryptocurrency investing.

24. Get up to 5% cash back on all purchases with this new credit card.

Cash back on purchases is one of the most beautiful forms of passive income out there because they’re tax-free.

And there’s a new credit card that offers up to 5% cash back on all purchases — not just on certain items or on rotating categories.

It also gives you monthly cash forever when you refer new users.

So this new credit card gives you not one but two ways to generate passive income every month!

Click here to learn more about this new credit card!

25. Get a Free 401(k) Analysis.

If you’ve ever worked in corporate America, you probably have a 401(k) retirement plan through your current or former employer.

And while your 401(k) is generating passive income for you, it’s possible that it’s not optimized for the best performance.

Just improving your returns by 1% a year can make a huge difference.

Let’s say you have $50,000 in your 401(k), and it will earn you 6% over time.

Increase your returns so that you earn 7% a year will mean over $65,000 more in your 401(k) over 30 years’ time.

A properly-optimized 401(k) can generate for you additional tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars of passive income over time.

That’s where Blooom comes in.

When you sign up for Blooom, your 401(k) will immediately be analyzed, and you will be shown what kind of hidden fees you’re currently paying in your 401(k).

Click here to get your free 401(k) analysis with Blooom.

26. Track Your Wealth in Personal Capital and Get a $20 Bonus.

Personal Capital isn’t so much a way to make passive income as it is to manage your passive income sources.

What is Personal Capital? It’s a free net worth and investment tracking website and app.

Your account balances are updated in real time! We personally use it to track our wealth and love the easy-to-use interface.

Also, for a limited time, Personal Capital is offering a free $20 Amazon gift card to new users who create an account through our $20 Bonus Link and links their first investment account.

Click here to sign up for Personal Capital and claim your $20 Amazon sign-up bonus!

youtube

27. See if you can pay less for homeowners or renters insurance.

Similar to some of the other items in this list, this one is more about passive savings than passive income.

But the end result of saving an extra $100 a month and making an extra $100 a month is the same: they both increase to your net worth.

And theoretically, saving is better than income because while you don’t pay taxes on additional savings, you do have to pay taxes on additional income!

One expense that slips by most people without being checked every now and then is homeowners or renters insurance.

See, the traditional insurance company model is getting more and more outdated with their high deductibles and premiums.

Take new insurance company Lemonade for example.

They take a simple flat fee, and everything else goes into a collective claims pool that they protect for their users in case they need to make a claim.

Since Lemonade doesn’t profit from the claims pool (like other, older insurance companies), leftover money is donated to charities that users choose when they sign up.

Lemonade’s self-stated goal is to transform insurance from a necessary evil into a social good.

They offer renters insurance for as low as $5 a month and homeowners insurance for as low as $25 a month.

Click here to check your rates in 90 seconds with Lemonade and see if you can save some money!

28. Get paid every time you search the Internet.

Swagbucks will pay you to simply use its search engine.

They will also give you $5 if you sign up through our Swagbucks $5 bonus link. So yup. This is probably the easiest way to make money online.

Click here to sign up and get a $5 sign-up bonus!

29. Arcadia Power pays you to use less electricity.

Arcadia Power is a free service that rewards you for saving energy when it matters most to the grid and the environment.

You will receive a notification about once per week to save energy for an hour.

If you save energy, you receive cash.

Click here to start getting rewarded for saving energy!

30. Get paid to watch TV.

Believe it or not, there is a company out there that will pay you to watch TV. This company is called Swagbucks, and you can get a $5 sign-up bonus if you sign up through my Swagbucks $5 bonus link!

31. Invest in alternative assets.

Yieldstreet is a platform aimed at giving investors access to high-yield, asset-based alternative investments.

It aims to create a portfolio across multiple asset classes – real estate, marine, commercial, and legal.

These opportunities are secured through assets, properties, settled and future case proceeds, and vessel acquisition.

These supposedly allow for the creation of a diversified investment portfolio that’s fully backed by a certain type of collateral.

Yieldstreet announced that since its inauguration, it has made over 300,000 payments that returned more than $297,000,000 to its investors.

Click here to check out Yieldstreet!

from https://moneydoneright.com/best-passive-income-ideas/ from http://thereallaptoplifestyle1.blogspot.com/2019/07/31-best-passive-income-ideas-for-2019.html

0 notes

success0 · 5 years

Text

31 Best Passive Income Ideas for 2019

Passive income. We all want it. We all crave it. We all want to make money without work. But are there actually any good passive income ideas that we can implement in 2019?

The answer is yes, and we’ve put together a list below of 31 ways to make passive income in 2019.

There are four main ways to earn passive income:

By investing money

By investing time

By renting things out

By getting paid to do activities you do anyway.

Below we have given you specific ideas for each of these four passive income categories for a total of 31 passive income ideas.

The most passive forms of income will require you to put up at least a little bit of money up-front.

Here are our top passive income picks for 2019.

1. Easily check to see if stores owe you money.

This one’s pretty interesting since it’s not so much passive income but rather passive savings.

The gist of it is that you get cash back on items you bought online when the price of those items drop.

It’s like price matching, but after the fact!

And there’s a new tool called Waldo that will help you get the refunds you deserve.

You simply sign up for Waldo, give it access to the email account you receive your shopping receipts at, and let Waldo get to work!

Waldo will then track the price of the item(s) you purchased and work to automatically get you a refund when the price drops.

If you’d like to start getting refunds on your online purchases, click here to sign up for Waldo.

2. Invest in Private Real Estate Deals With Only $500

Real estate is one of the classic forms of passive income: you own property, and others pay you for using it.

The downside to traditional real estate, of course, is that you typically need a lot of cash to get started.

Not so anymore with the rise of private real estate investing platforms.

We personally invest in one of these platforms called Fundrise.

Fundrise lets everyday people invest in top deals across the nation — way better deals than most people could find on their own.

It also lets you diversify your real estate holdings.

For example, I am invested in deals in 10 different states!

And for the first 90 days of your investment, Fundrise will buy your investment back at the original investment amount if for any reason you are not satisfied.

Click here to sign up to see Fundrise’s latest investment opportunities.

3. Invest in fine art with only $1,000.

Did you know that the Wall Street Journal called “the best investment of 2018”?

Fine art.

That’s right. So while you should certainly have a core investment portfolio of stocks and maybe bonds, you may want to at least consider adding some fine art to your portfolio.

I know what you’re thinking. Don’t I have to be a multimillionaire to invest in fine art?

Well, you used to be. But not anymore.

Similar to what Fundrise (see above) is doing for investment-grade real estate, Masterworks is opening up fine art investing to the masses.

Masterworks’ minimum investment is $1,000.

Click here to see Masterworks’ latest fine art offerings.

4. Open a savings account with 2.30% interest.

If you have your savings in a low-interest brick and mortar bank, it’s time to get with the times and open an online bank account.

Because they don’t have the huge overhead costs of traditional banks, online banks can pass the savings on to their customers in the form of higher interest rates.

One of our favorite online banks right now is CIT Bank Savings Builder.

This account offers a sky-high 2.30% APY if you simply make at least one monthly deposit of $100 or more.

And there are no account opening or maintenance fees, making this one of the best savings accounts on the market today.

Click here to learn more about the CIT Bank Savings Builder Account.

5. Get paid to go to stores.

Did you know there’s an app that gives you gift cards simply by walking into stores?

You don’t even have to buy anything!

It’s true!

So whether you’re a mall rat or just somebody who goes shopping every now and then, you stand to make a little extra cash this way.

Click here to download this special app and start getting paid just for walking into stores!

6. Get paid to play mobile games.

This is another one of those passive income ideas where you get paid to do something you enjoy, so it’s not really work at all.

How it works is you download a free new app, then download new mobile games through the app.

As you level up in the mobile games, you earn more points that you can redeem for gift cards at Amazon, VISA, PlayStation, Xbox, Apple, Starbucks, and more.

Click here to start winning free gift cards for playing mobile games on your phone.

7. Rent out your spare room.

Renting out lodging can be an incredible way to earn extra money.

I know some people making thousands of dollars a month, all by renting out an extra room to short-term guests.

Now, if you wanted to do this 10 years ago, you would’ve had to post an ad in the classifieds or on shady old Craigslist.

Gladly, those days are over.

You can now list your spare room on Airbnb and screen out prospective guests. (Guests are rated by their hosts for things like cleanliness and communication.)

If you’d like to sign up to become an Airbnb host, check out my article Make Extra Money with Airbnb.

8. Get paid to get gas.

GetUpside is a free app that gives you cash back for every gas station receipt you submit!

Also, if you sign up through our link, you get a 20¢ per gallon bonus the first time you fill up!

If you drive a lot (or even if you don’t), this can add up to a decent chunk of change!

Click here to download GetUpside and get a 20¢ per gallon bonus for using our link!

9. Get paid to walk.

I just made $10 for walking, paid in cash via PayPal.

It’s true!

There’s a new app, Sweatcoin, that will pay you for every step you take.

It motivates me to go for more runs, take the stairs more often, and be an all-around more active person.

Click here to check out Sweatcoin now and start getting paid to walk!

10. Invest in dividend-paying stocks.

We love dividends here at Money Done Right.

There are plenty of great places to open up a stock-investing account, but the one that’s getting us hot and bothered at the moment is Ally Invest.

Ally Invest is great because you can trade dividend stocks for as little as $3.95 per trade compared to $6.95 at E*TRADE and Charles Schwab.

Click here to sign up for Ally Invest to start investing in dividend stocks affordably!

Ally Invest has developed a pretty amazing platform, and no matter if the stock market goes up or done, we still get dividends deposited into our Ally Invest account every quarter!

Click here to sign up for Ally Invest to start investing in dividend stocks affordably!

11. Get paid to have an app on your phone.

There’s an app that will pay you just for having it on your phone.

It doesn’t get much more passive than that! You heard me right.

They will pay you $50 per year per device just for having your app on there!

Talk about the ultimate passive income opportunity!

If getting paid simply for having an app on your phone interests you, click here to learn more!

12. Invest $10 in small businesses and earn 5%.

Worthy Bonds is a company that provides bond funding to small businesses — and it’s letting you get a piece of the action.

See, these small businesses (obviously) pay Worthy interest on these loans, and folks like you and me can buy bonds from Worthy that pay 5% interest.

This is far more interest than you could earn in a savings account at the bank.

You can buy bonds in $10 increments and / or link your debit or credit card and round up the spare change on your purchases to invest in bonds.

Click here to sign up for Worthy and start earning 5% interest by investing in American small business.

13. Write slogans.

Are you kinda witty?

Then you may be able to make passive income just by thinking up slogans in your spare time. Here’s how it works:

Write a catchy slogan.

Upload it online here.

Get paid every time someone uses your slogan! Passive income!

Click here to learn more about earning passive income from slogans.

14. Sell your photos.

Are you good behind the camera?

Then you can make a somewhat passive side income licensing your photos online for others to download.

For example, I get all my pictures for this blog from various stock photo sites on the Internet.

And every time I download a photo, the photographer who uploaded it gets a royalty!

Licensing one picture that you take and upload now can give you cash flow forever as it’s downloaded again and again!

Click here to learn how you can get paid for your photos from home.

15. Get your bank and credit card fees refunded.

This isn’t really passive “income” per se, but it is an opportunity for you to increase your net worth somewhat passively.

There’s a new website that can get you refunds on fees like:

Overdraft fees

Monthly service fees

Minimum balance fees

ATM fees

Late fees

Wire transfer fees

Foreign transaction fees

Credit card interest charges

Click here to learn how to get your bank and credit card fees refunded.

16. Get paid for doing things you do anyway.

Swagbucks ($10 sign-up bonus) is a great app to use to make money whenever you have some downtime, say while you’re in line at the store or while watching some mindless TV program.

There are a variety of ways to make money with the Swagbucks app, including:

Playing games on your phone

Using the Swagbucks search engine

Watching videos

Taking surveys

Getting cash back on online purchases

Using coupons

And more!

Click here to download Swagbucks and get a $10 bonus for using our link!

17. Make money with your social media skills.

Do you have experience with social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.?

Then you have a very valuable 21st-century skill!

If you know your way around social media, then you can make some major dough by promoting brands on social media.

Companies are willing to pay ordinary people to help get the word out about their products and drive more sales.

But the trickiest part of this industry is finding the right opportunities.

There are a few resources out there to help social media pros land these opportunities, but the one we found to be the best is SocialSaleRep.com.

They’ve been around for a while and have several proprietary partnerships with large corporations looking for social media experts.

Click here to check out paid social media opportunities at SocialSaleRep.com!

18. Check your credit score.

While this isn’t directly a way to generate passive income, checking on your credit score and finding ways to improve it can passively grow your net worth.

How so? Well, by simply increasing your credit score a little bit, you can, for example, pay less in interest, which will grow your wealth in the long-term.

We’ve found that Credit Sesame is the best free website that can calculate and monitor your credit score.

Click here to get Credit Sesame for free — it only takes 90 seconds!

19. Use a free money-saving bot.

Sometimes the best way to make money is to save money.

Subscriptions, especially those that go unused, can add up over time.

And Cushion not only keeps track of your subscriptions, but it also negotiates your monthly bills such as cable and Internet so you keep more money in your pocket.

Cushion users have saved over $8,000,000! To learn other benefits that Cushion can offer you, check out our full-scale Cushion review.

Click here to start saving with Cushion! It’s 100% free!

20. Take online surveys.

This one’s not exactly “passive,” but it is certainly mindless.

You can take surveys when you’re binging on Netflix or in line at the grocery store or waiting to pick your kids up.

The trick is that there are only a few legit survey sites. We recommend Survey Junkie.

It’s 100% legit, and they do not send you spammy junk emails.

Their payouts are excellent, and they pay you in cash via PayPal.

Top Survey Site Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie has an 8.9/10 rating on TrustPilot — the highest of any online survey company.

And they also have some really fun surveys.

For example, in the screenshot below you’ll see a pretty awesome music review survey that I recently did. I made $50 reviewing music! ?

Click here to start making extra cash with Survey Junkie.

Now, I must tell you that not all surveys are this fun, and not all pay this well, but every once in a while you get a great one like this!

Also, it’s satisfying knowing that companies will use my opinions and inputs to make decisions about not only music, but also food, restaurants, consumer products, movies, and a lot more.

Click here to start making extra cash with Survey Junkie.

21. Get paid to lose weight.

If you can commit to shedding some pounds, it may pay off handsomely for you to cut that habit because you can literally get paid to lose weight through a new company called HealthyWage.

Check out this Good Morning America special on HealthyWage that explains how it works:

youtube

You can bet as little or as much as you want, but obviously the more you bet, the more you stand to win!

Also, you can bet on your weight loss of any period between 6 and 18 months.

Click here to see how much you could win with HealthyWage!

22. Get cash back when you shop online.

Ebates ($10 sign-up bonus if you use our link) is a free website and app that gives you up to 40% cash back at over 2,500 online stores.

If you shop online a lot (or even if you don’t), this can add up to a decent chunk of change!

Click here to get your $10 sign-up bonus sign up for Ebates and start getting cash back on online purchases today!

23. Invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

I would recommend only investing in cryptocurrencies after you’ve invested in more stable passive income opportunities such as stocks and real estate.

Nevertheless, many people have become unlikely millionaires by investing in cryptocurrencies, and the concept of cryptocurrencies is not without merit.

However, you have to know what you’re doing, or you’ll get creamed in the cryptocurrency market.

Click here to learn more about cryptocurrency investing.

24. Get up to 5% cash back on all purchases with this new credit card.

Cash back on purchases is one of the most beautiful forms of passive income out there because they’re tax-free.

And there’s a new credit card that offers up to 5% cash back on all purchases — not just on certain items or on rotating categories.

It also gives you monthly cash forever when you refer new users.

So this new credit card gives you not one but two ways to generate passive income every month!

Click here to learn more about this new credit card!

25. Get a Free 401(k) Analysis.

If you’ve ever worked in corporate America, you probably have a 401(k) retirement plan through your current or former employer.

And while your 401(k) is generating passive income for you, it’s possible that it’s not optimized for the best performance.

Just improving your returns by 1% a year can make a huge difference.

Let’s say you have $50,000 in your 401(k), and it will earn you 6% over time.

Increase your returns so that you earn 7% a year will mean over $65,000 more in your 401(k) over 30 years’ time.

A properly-optimized 401(k) can generate for you additional tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars of passive income over time.

That’s where Blooom comes in.

When you sign up for Blooom, your 401(k) will immediately be analyzed, and you will be shown what kind of hidden fees you’re currently paying in your 401(k).

Click here to get your free 401(k) analysis with Blooom.

26. Track Your Wealth in Personal Capital and Get a $20 Bonus.

Personal Capital isn’t so much a way to make passive income as it is to manage your passive income sources.

What is Personal Capital? It’s a free net worth and investment tracking website and app.

Your account balances are updated in real time! We personally use it to track our wealth and love the easy-to-use interface.

Also, for a limited time, Personal Capital is offering a free $20 Amazon gift card to new users who create an account through our $20 Bonus Link and links their first investment account.

Click here to sign up for Personal Capital and claim your $20 Amazon sign-up bonus!

youtube

27. See if you can pay less for homeowners or renters insurance.

Similar to some of the other items in this list, this one is more about passive savings than passive income.

But the end result of saving an extra $100 a month and making an extra $100 a month is the same: they both increase to your net worth.

And theoretically, saving is better than income because while you don’t pay taxes on additional savings, you do have to pay taxes on additional income!

One expense that slips by most people without being checked every now and then is homeowners or renters insurance.

See, the traditional insurance company model is getting more and more outdated with their high deductibles and premiums.

Take new insurance company Lemonade for example.

They take a simple flat fee, and everything else goes into a collective claims pool that they protect for their users in case they need to make a claim.

Since Lemonade doesn’t profit from the claims pool (like other, older insurance companies), leftover money is donated to charities that users choose when they sign up.

Lemonade’s self-stated goal is to transform insurance from a necessary evil into a social good.

They offer renters insurance for as low as $5 a month and homeowners insurance for as low as $25 a month.

Click here to check your rates in 90 seconds with Lemonade and see if you can save some money!

28. Get paid every time you search the Internet.

Swagbucks will pay you to simply use its search engine.

They will also give you $5 if you sign up through our Swagbucks $5 bonus link. So yup. This is probably the easiest way to make money online.

Click here to sign up and get a $5 sign-up bonus!

29. Arcadia Power pays you to use less electricity.

Arcadia Power is a free service that rewards you for saving energy when it matters most to the grid and the environment.

You will receive a notification about once per week to save energy for an hour.

If you save energy, you receive cash.

Click here to start getting rewarded for saving energy!

30. Get paid to watch TV.

Believe it or not, there is a company out there that will pay you to watch TV. This company is called Swagbucks, and you can get a $5 sign-up bonus if you sign up through my Swagbucks $5 bonus link!

31. Invest in alternative assets.

Yieldstreet is a platform aimed at giving investors access to high-yield, asset-based alternative investments.

It aims to create a portfolio across multiple asset classes – real estate, marine, commercial, and legal.

These opportunities are secured through assets, properties, settled and future case proceeds, and vessel acquisition.

These supposedly allow for the creation of a diversified investment portfolio that’s fully backed by a certain type of collateral.

Yieldstreet announced that since its inauguration, it has made over 300,000 payments that returned more than $297,000,000 to its investors.

Click here to check out Yieldstreet!

from https://moneydoneright.com/best-passive-income-ideas/

0 notes

earnmoneyonline19-blog · 5 years

Text

31 Creative Ways to Make Money Fast

Regardless of whether it’s the end of the month and you’re short in rent cash or you’re just looking to make a tiny extra spending money for the weekend, sometimes all we need are generally easy ways to make money fast (and preferably something you could start today).

If you need to know how to make 100 dollars in a day (or maybe even earn 200 dollars in one day) you ought to be able to find a few options on this list that you can do to pull that off. On the other hand, if you’re in debt and need 2, 000 money fast, this list probably isn’t for you – yet fortunately $100 and maybe even $200 in a couple of days certainly is not totally out of the question. 31 Best Ways to Make Money Fast

The best way to commence Earn Money Online 2019 fast is to get some quick wins. Here are a few suggestions to get you started: 1 . Take Paid Surveys

Websites like Review Junkie will pay you a decent chunk of change for the low-maintenance, termes conseillés mindless task of completing surveys. Companies want to realize consumers better, and one way they do that is by paying survey-takers. Most surveys pay between $0. 50 in addition to $1. 25, and many of them take less than 5 minutes to accomplish. You can read our full Survey Junkie review for more info. Questionnaire Junkie adds new surveys every day, which means you can make income faster than you think. If you’re really into surveys, make sure you check out our list of recommended paid survey sites. 2 . not Deliver with Postmates

Postmates’ slogan is simple: “Anything, whenever, anywhere. We get it. ” As a delivery driver meant for Postmates, you’ll get paid to deliver things like groceries, take out, and also alcohol (which is a genius business idea, by the way). There are no fees or time commitments, so you have got complete freedom over when you want to work. You’ll take home fully of what you earn every time you complete a delivery, and you will be able to see an exact breakdown of how your commissions usually are calculated. 3. Get $5 from Swagbucks

Swagbucks can be another great survey site to make money fast. It’s just like Survey Junkie, but there are also a few other ways you can earn money as being a member (including a $5 bonus just for signing up). Other ways you can earn with Swagbucks outside of surveys: Cash back plan for internet shopping (includes $5 bonus). Get paid for browsing the web (includes $5 bonus)

Watching videos (includes $5 bonus)

4. Get a Free $300 Bonus as a Fresh Lyft Driver

If you’ve got some free time plus don’t live in the middle of nowhere, becoming a Lyft driver can be quite a very lucrative side hustle that allows you Earn Money Online 2019 quickly. And right now, they’ve got a promotion going on where any fresh driver will instantly get a $300 bonus after completing their particular 100th ride. If you start now and hustle hard on the particular weekends, you can probably unlock that bonus within a weeks of driving (and that’s in addition to your normal earnings). 5. Download the Nielsen App (and Collect $50)

Have you heard of Nielsen, the company that tracks TV scores? Turns out they collect data on a lot more than just TV SET. One area they’re really into is internet usage analysis. What does that mean for you? It means Nielsen will pay you fifty dollars a year to keep their app on your favorite internet exploring device. The app itself collects statistics on your net usage anonymously, so you never have to worry about any data getting linked to you. And the best part is, the app consumes barely any space and doesn’t slow down your telephone or tablet at all! 6. Link a Card for you to DOSH and Get a Free $5 Instantly

The DOSH a cash return app has been creating a ton of buzz on social media marketing lately, and for good reason: they are offering free money to draw new users. Here’s how it works: Download the software package and connect your credit and debit cards (they make use of bank-level encryption technology to keep your info safe) Accumulate cashback Deposit your cash back into your bank account Perks of DOSH: Just about all rewards are pure cash. You get $5 when you url your first card, and an additional $10 for each friend anyone refer to the app. Get a few family and friends to sign up as well as the money adds up quick! (Note: The $10 referral added bonus varies. Sometimes it’s only $5, but we’ve noticed it as high as $15 per referral).

7. Make Rewards Easily with the Drop App

Drop is a free of charge app that rewards you for your everyday spending. Just how it works is simple. Once you download the app and create a merchant account, you’ll need to link a debit or credit card to start out earning. Whenever you shop with one of Drop’s hundreds of lover brands, you’ll earn points. In addition to the points you make for shopping, you can earn more rewards for completing straightforward tasks. Every friend you refer is worth 1, 000 points. You can also earn additional points for integrating additional apps or completing a Linked or Mobile offer you. Every 1, 000 points is worth $1. Once you have earned 5, 000 points, you can redeem them with regard to gift cards to your favorite places such as Amazon, Starbucks, Concentrate on, and more. For more details on how to earn with Drop, have a look at our complete Drop App review. 8. Let Reduce Lower Your Bills

I recently stumbled on the Trim app and i also have to say, this one is a game changer. It’s a very simple app that acts as your own personal financial manager. Once you web page link your bank to the app, Trim analyzes your wasting, finds subscriptions you need to cancel, negotiates your Comcast costs, finds you better car insurance, and more. And of course, the app will be free! My bet is that it will only take a few days regarding Trim to put an extra $100 in your pocket. So easy! 9. Get a Free $5 to Invest from Acorns

five money signup bonusAcorns is a simple investing app that helps you increase your savings by putting your money into investments designed to develop value over time. If you are new to investing and want to get your foot wet, this is a great app to start with. Acorns works by “rounding up” the spare change from your everyday purchases and investment the difference in the stock market. For example , if you buy a coffee intended for $3. 64, Acorns will move 36 cents as part of your investment account (so you spend $4 total). Over time, these kinds of small contributions can add up. Acorns is now offering some sort of $5 signup bonus for new accounts opened. After completing your own personal account registration, Acorns will deposit a free $5 into the account to help you get started. Read our full review here. 10. Cryptocurrency – At Your Own Risk!

Surely you have read all the mania surrounding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. If you are looking to have in on the action, you can do it with the Coinbase request. If you sign up through this link and invest $22.99, Coinbase will deposit $10 into your account — immediately 10% return! Warning: Trading cryptocurrencies is very risky, and you ought to never invest more than you can afford to lose. That being said, you possibly can make a lot of money fast if you buy low and sell high. 11. Locate Unclaimed Money

Unclaimed. org is an awesome site to get finding money that’s due to you that you may have forgotten concerning. Examples: A utility deposit on an account you had forever before, money left in a bank account you had as a kid, or even a check from a former employer.

12. Go walking Dogs in Your Neighborhood

Rover is a dog walking and even pet sitting website that is always looking for qualified doggy walkers in cities all over the United States. So when you in order to pup on a walk, you can also take a second (or third) dog with you and get paid to walk. 30-minute taking walks fall in the $10-30 range. With a neighborhood route, that will add up quickly! You’re just a short application away from starting. 13. Drive with Uber and/or Lyft

This is a excellent use of your time if you are trying to make some extra cash in a saturday and sunday. By driving with Uber, you have the flexibility to drive if you want, which means you can make money fast, and it’s in your schedule. Pretty slick! 14. Get Paid to Let People Borrow Your Car

If you do not have time to drive with Uber or Lyft, you can continue to make money with your car with Getaround. In fact , some people are converting this side gig into $1, 000s of cash per year in extra income. As a car owner, you can make $5+ on a daily basis just by letting someone else borrow your car. Getaround offers $1 million primary insurance coverage, so you don’t have to worry about possible injuries. Signing up for Getaround is pretty straightforward. Name your car, set the and pickup location, and add a description. When someone would like to rent your car, they can do so straight from the app. An individual don’t have to worry about meeting up to exchange keys or managing the logistics. Just work, sleep, and live your life although your car earns money for you. Learn how you can potentially constitute to $1, 000 per month (or more) with Getaround. Car owners get paid on the 15th for the prior month’s earnings. Register here to get started. 15. Share Your Home by having an Airbnb Guest

Make the most of your spare space by position it for short term rentals with Airbnb. If you know the way to be an Airbnb host that wows their friends, you have an amazing opportunity to make money fast. By creating a amazing experience for your guests, you’re setting yourself up for fantastic reviews and lots of repeat guests. Check out our complete guidebook on getting started as an Airbnb host. 16. Deliver Foods with Uber Eats

Tons of folks nowadays have started out delivering food with Uber Eats because it’s is actually a flexible, easy way to earn money on your own schedule. You can supply day or night, for however long you’d just like. You just sign onto the app, and you can start obtaining delivery requests in your area. 17. Make $100 Fast using Listverse

Do you love to write? Listverse, a popular site offering tons of list articles, will pay you $100 to write a new “listicle” of your own. You don’t need to be an expert—you simply need to have English equal to that of a native speaker, a feeling of humor, and a love for things unusual or exciting. 18. Be a Personal Grocery Shopper with Instacart

Seen of Instacart? It’s a grocery delivery service for people who rarely want to bother with the hassle of going to the store. What does which means that for you? An opportunity to make extra money! It works in a similar way to Best Eats, in that whenever you need to make money, you simply sign to the app and mark yourself as available for shopping. As a possible Instacart personal grocery shopper, you will actually be doing the trips to market yourself (so don’t crush anyone’s avocados! ). Your current compensation depends on several factors, like the average size of your personal orders and average number of miles driven per vacation. You can also get tips in addition to the pay that will come directly from Instacart (most people report an average earnings level of $15 per hour). 5 Ways to Passively Earn passive income

Once you get a bit of cash on hand, let it grow itself with these ways to passively earn additional income. 19. Wide open a High-Yield Savings Account

CIT Bank is making significant waves in the banking world with their savings account. Seriously, it may be off-the-charts good: 20. Peer to Peer Lending

Have you heard regarding peer-to-peer lending? It’s a financial system that matches borrower having investors that are willing to fund their loans. As an buyer, essentially YOU are acting as the bank, which is pretty cool. Using a service like Lending Club is a great way to behave as a lender and earn interest on your money. Making Money with Lending Club: Open an account and exchange as little as a $0. 01 minimum initial deposit. Quickly build a portfolio by investing in a range of Loans in augmentations as little as $25 Receive monthly payments of principal and curiosity as borrowers repay their loans Reinvest payments or perhaps withdraw If you’re still unsure about how it works, or you need to learn a little more, check out this short, 2-minute video shot simply by Lending Club. It does a great job of explaining peer to see lending. 21. Invest in Real Estate (Starting with as Little as $500)

If you’ve ever wanted to try real estate investing but don’t would like to deal with all the stress of being a landlord, you might want to take into account investing with Fundrise. Fundrise is a new platform lets you invest directly in a real estate portfolio that a team of execs identifies, acquires, and manages on your behalf. With a starting purchase as small as $500, you get exposure to dozens of solid, value-producing property. 22. Start a Blog

I’m a huge fan of blog because I love writing and connecting with people all over the world. To offer you an idea of what is possible with blogging, DollarSprout. com is part of a group of blogs that routinely brings in above $100, 000 a month in revenue. While it takes time to create your blog up to that income level, you can get the initial create done in under 30 minutes (no experience needed). 23. Acquire Dividend Paying Stocks

It’s been said that the average uniform has seven streams of income. Dividend stocks are generally one of them. What are dividend stocks? They are just like regular stock shares of stock, but with one exception: For every share of your dividend stock that you own, you are paid a small portion of the company’s earnings. Basically, you get paid just for owning the inventory! If you are looking to get started with dividend investing, check out Ally Spend (which is included on our list of best investment apps). 6th Creative Ways to Make Money Fast

If you’ve made it this specific far, I know you’re committed! Here are a few more ideas how make money fast. 24. Collect $1 coming from Vindale Research

Vindale Research asks for information about you in order to match you with fitting surveys. At up to 50 bucks a pop for some surveys, and a free $1 simply for signing up, it pays to check in daily to see which ones can be obtained to you. Cashouts are through PayPal. 25. Collect $12 from Ebates

Ebates is another cash back app, similar to DOSH, and right now they are offering a $10 signup extra. There’s no rule saying you can’t have multiple cash rebates apps, so why not sign up for a couple just so you get the additional bonuses? Once you get your bonuses, then just use whichever practical application gets you the best deal on your upcoming purchases. Easiest capital ever! 26. Tell 3 Friends About Ibotta and create $100

The cash back industry is ruthlessly competitive, isnt it!? All of these apps want new users, which means you can easily load up on welcome bonuses. The Ibotta app is a opportunity to get a bonus: they are giving people $10 whenever they sign up. Unlike the other apps mentioned in this article, Ibotta focuses primarily on getting you cash back at grocery stores. Bonus: Refer several users and they’ll credit you with $100. 00. After that, get $10 for every person you refer. 27. Help to make Extra Money as a Freelance Writer

Not quite ready to start your own personal blog, but still like the idea of getting paid to write? You might like to consider trying your hand at freelance writing. Many blog writers and website owners are willing to shell out some serious cash pertaining to high quality writers. In fact , Holly Johnson from ClubThrifty. com makes over $200, 000 per year from freelance perform! And she has a course that teaches others how to the actual same. 28. Get Paid as a Freelance Proofreader

If creating isn’t your thing, do what Caitlin Pyle did: Inside 2014, Caitlin made over $43, 000 by functioning as a freelance proofreader working only part time. After the woman had a ton of success doing that, she decided this girl wanted to teach others how to do the same, so your woman started up Proofread Anywhere. Sign up for one of her free training courses to learn more about how to make money fast from home as a proofreader. three or more Ways Make More Money at Your Job No guide on how to generate profits fast would be complete without mentioning the fastest option of just about all: getting more money from your employer! 29. Get a Promotion

Should you be willing to go above and beyond and prove your value to your employer, you can move up the corporate ladder. Check out this article from The Equilibrium on how to get promoted at work.

30. Get a Pay Boost

Getting a raise is harder than getting a promotion. Think it over from your boss’s perspective, would you rather a) pay more revenue for the same service, or b) pay more money for additional obligations. Regardless, sometimes a raise is in order, especially if you been employed by for several years without one.

31. Work Overtime

It’s certainly not glamorous. But at a lot of jobs, the opportunity is there to help rack up some overtime hours. Earning More Money Means Possessing More Freedom No matter what your circumstances may be right now, remember a very important factor: earning more money means having more freedom in your life. Flexibility to eat what you want to eat, live where you want to live, vacation where you want them vacation, and more. Making extra money starts with a simple selection: Do you want to have more freedom in your life? If the answer is of course, it’s time to go for it. You may have to try more than one money-making thought before you find one that sticks, but I promise you actually, once your income starts to rise, you will gain control of your wellbeing and find even more opportunity than you could ever imagine!

youtube

#Money Making Sites

0 notes

darcyfarber · 4 years

Text

Investing Your Spare Change with Acorns

What do you do with your loose change you get from the cashier after a purchase? If you’re like most people, you put your leftover pennies and quarters in a jar that you take to the bank when it fills up, right?

A better solution is Acorns.

Acorns is an app that takes your spare change and doesn’t just set it aside for you, but rather invests it for you using a method called “micro-investing.”

Micro-Investing

Instead of spending it on a double latte or a drive-thru supper because “you found five bucks,” what if you could put your loose change into a digital money jar that earns interest?

Enter Acorns, a micro-investing app that invests your spare change each month, so it grows in size. While Acorns definitely isn’t intended to replace your 401k at work, it can help you pay for some of life’s smaller expenses like a vacation or buying a new phone with cash.

There are many micro-investing platforms to choose from, but this post is going to focus on one of our favorite and one of the most widely-known platforms; Acorns.

In this Acorns app review, you’ll find out everything you ever wanted to know about it and how you can build a small nest egg with minimal effort.

What is Acorns?

The best way to describe Acorns is it’s an online money jar that also invests your spare change.

Acorns is a micro-investing app that collects your spare change in three different ways:

Rounding up your debit and credit card purchases,

Recurring daily, weekly, or monthly investments (optional)

Cash back rewards when you shop online at select retailers

First, you choose the funding methods of your choice. The most popular option is the spending round-ups, but you might also do a recurring deposit or shopping through Acorns to give your an account a boost too.

Acorns only withdraws small amounts of money–usually $5– unless you designate a larger amount from your bank account so you won’t notice any money is missing unless you monitor your account balance on a daily basis. To prevent charging an overdraft fee, Acorns only makes a withdrawal when there are sufficient funds in your bank account.

Your Acorns money is invested in a taxable, non-retirement investment account. Beginning in 2018, you’ll also have the opportunity to fund an Acorns Later tax-advantaged Traditional IRA investment account that’s similar to your employer 401k plan that you fund with pre-tax income.

How to Access Acorns

You can download the Acorns app from any Android or Apple mobile device. Acorns can also be accessed online via their desktop platform here.

Does Acorns Replace Your Savings Account?

No!!

Acorns invests your money which means it’s constantly fluctuating in value and is not guaranteed to earn a profit. While most investments appreciate when invested for several years, a 10% market dip can cause you to lose money if you sell now instead of waiting for it to recover.

Hedging against market volatility is why Acorns only invests small amounts of money every month. This is money you don’t need to pay your bills with and by investing your extra money for the long-haul, your nest egg will be larger than if you keep it in a savings account or spend it instead.

You still need to keep an emergency fund and other savings you can’t afford to lose inside an FDIC-insured bank account.

Before you begin investing with Acorns, make sure you set aside $1,000 into an emergency fund to cover life’s unexpected expenses.

Who Can Join Acorns?

You must meet the three requirements to join Acorns:

At least 18 years old

Be a resident of the USA

Own an active checking account

You will also need to link your credit and debit cards to Acorns if you want to participate in the round-ups program. If not, you can still fund your account on a regular basis with scheduled deposits and shopping online through the Acorns Found Money shopping portal.

Why Join Acorns?

The #1 reason to join Acorns is that you save money on a regular basis and can earn more interest than your bank account.

You will benefit most from Acorns if you’re one of the following:

Do not currently invest or save money for the future

Want to save money every time you spend money

Want a 100% “hands-off” investing app

All of the change in your spare change jar doesn’t earn any interest until you deposit it into your savings account. Even then, the average brick-and-mortar interest rate is maybe 0.10% or one-tenth of one percent. While it’s still better than keeping your money under the mattress, you won’t be able to retire and live off the interest anytime soon.

Want to Fire the Big Banks? Tired of the almost zero percent returns on your current savings accounts? I don’t blame you. CIT Bank has 22x higher returns than those “big banks” and they only require $100 minimum deposit to open an account?

Using Acorns can be a win-win proposition to build wealth because:

Develop the habit of saving and investing money each month

Investments usually earn more interest than your checking account

Many people view the money in their checking account as spending money to pay their regular bills and life’s smaller expenses. If there’s a $1,000 balance, that’s $1,000 to spend for the month and any money left over can roll over to next month instead of tucking some of it away for a rainy day.

One reason why so many Americans can’t afford a $500 emergency without borrowing money is because they don’t put enough money in a savings account on a regular basis. Acorns automates the savings process so you at least have something to pull from if you’re in a financial bind instead of running a credit card balance.

Is Acorns Free?

Acorns is free for college students with a dot.edu email address for up to four years.

If you don’t have a .edu address, you’ll pay $1 per month until your account reaches $5,000. After your balance exceeds $5,000, you’ll pay 0.25% per year–0.02% per month–on your total account balance which comes to approximately $12.50 per year or $1.04 per month with a $5,000 balance.

Acorns doesn’t charge the $1 fee until you make your first $5 investment. You can begin earning round-ups and Acorns will collect the first fee after your first $5 round-up balance is invested or you schedule your first cash transfer from your checking account.

While you might initially balk at paying $12 a year to have an app invest your loose change, take a second to look at it from a different perspective.

You automatically pay the fee for the year by going out to eat one less time a year at a sit down restaurant where you easily pay $15-20 per person. If you’re a fast food junkie and spend $6 on average, you only have to pack your lunch twice to pay the $12 fee.

Even though you pay $1 a month, Acorns is helping you save more money than before you joined Acorns. In my opinion, if Acorns is the difference between saving more money each month instead of spending it on something you don’t need, it’s well worth the price.

Also, don’t forget your investments earn regular dividends that can offset or exceed the monthly fee as well.

As we mentioned earlier in the review, Acorns automates the saving process by withdrawing small amounts of money on a regular basis while still leaving enough money in your account to pay your monthly bills.

Paying one buck a month can be well worth the additional peace of mind you’ll receive by automating your savings process with minimal effort.

How to Fund Your Acorns Account

There are three different ways to fund your Acorns account:

Round-ups

Recurring investments

Found Money shopping rewards

You can participate in one, two, or all three of these funding streams. So decide which ones work best for you and start saving.

Round-Up Investing

Round-up investing is the digital equivalent of throwing your loose change in your money jar at home. It’s also the “bread-and-butter” savings tool for most Acorns users. According to Acorns, the average user invests $32 per month by rounding up their purchases.

Here’s how Acorns’ round-up investing feature works:

Link your credit or debit cards to your Acorns account

Acorns monitors your card spending and “rounds-up” each purchase to the next dollar

Your round-up balance is invested each time it reaches $5 and withdraws the balance from your checking account

When you spend $4.73, Acorns rounds up your purchase to $5 and invests the 27 cent difference. Acorns will round up a $9.36 to $10 and invests 64 cents once your round-up balance reaches $5. After these two purchases, your round-up balance is 91 cents so you have $4.09 to go before Acorns withdraws $5 from your checking account and makes an investment.

Assuming you’re like the average American and use your debit card 23 times a month, Acorns can easily invest $5 a month assuming the average round-up is 25 cents per transaction.

You can easily estimate what your average round-up amount will be every month by looking at your own transactions for the last two months by counting the number of transactions and keeping a tally of the average round-up per transaction.

Acorns Round-Up Multiplier

To speed up the investing frequency for your round-ups, activating the Acorns round-up multiplier boosts your round-up total up to 10x the normal contribution. With a 10x multiplier, your standard 25-cent round-up becomes $2.50. Ten of these multiplied round-ups each month means you contribute $25 instead of $2.50.

The round-up multiplier is an optional feature, but it can be a good idea if you’re eager to maximize your round-ups and accelerate your savings rate. By rounding up $25 a month, you’ll have a principal balance of $300 every year before factoring in any investment returns.

If you choose to use the round-up multiplier, you do have a total of three options:

2x multiplier

3x multiplier

10x multiplier

You can also turn off or turn on the multiplier any time you’d like. So, you might decide to use it when you go on vacation or go Christmas shopping to optimize your investments from two of the most expensive financial events each year for many families.

Acorns Won’t Withdraw Money Until Round-Ups Reach $5

Acorns tracks your card spending in real time but they won’t withdraw any round-ups from your checking account until your balance reaches $5. When Acorns withdraws the round-up from your account, the balance is immediately invested so you can begin earning passive income.

Even if it takes you two months to reach $5 in round-ups, Acorns won’t withdraw any money from your checking account until your current round-up balance reaches the $5 minimum.

If you schedule a recurring investment, that contribution will be separate from your round-ups balance and you will still have to reach the $5 round-ups minimum before they can be invested.

Recurring Investments

In addition to rounding up your purchases, you can also schedule recurring deposits or a one-time investment from your checking account to build your Acorns balance. You can link your savings account, but this isn’t recommended since federal law only allows six total withdrawals each month.

Automate Weekly and Monthly Investments

People don’t become wealthy overnight; it’s usually through regular contributions to their savings and investing accounts. Automating your savings with Acorns is an easy way to start a rich habit because Acorns does the heavy lifting of transferring the same amount of cash into your Acorns account on the scheduled day. Unlike humans, computers don’t forget!

You can designate weekly or monthly contributions and Acorns lets you pick the day and the transfer amount. Weekly investments always take place on the same day of the week–every Monday for instance– and monthly deposits occur on the same day each month, like the 1st of every month.

On the Acorns dashboard, you have the option of investing $5, $10, $15, or $20 per week, but you can choose a different amount as long as it’s at least $5. You might decide to invest $100 each month and it only takes a few seconds to type in your custom amount and Acorns takes care of the rest.

One-Time Investments

You might decide to make a one-time investment to fund your account during the signup process. Five dollars gets you started and the money will deposit within three business days.

Or, you can send a one-time investment after you receive your tax refund or your boss gives you a bonus. Either way, you’re investing your money instead of mindlessly spending it, which is always a good thing.

Found Money

The third and final way Acorns invests your spare change is with the “Found Money” portal where select online merchants give a portion of your purchase amount back into your Acorns account when you activate a shopping session through Acorns.

If you shop online with Ebates, you’re already familiar with this concept of getting paid to shop online; the only difference is your cash rewards can grow in size because they’re invested instead of being sent to your bank account as a “Big Fat Check.”

Get Business Partners to Invest in You

Any rewards you earn from Found Money are in addition to your spending round-ups. To get extra cash rewards to invest, you need to follow these steps:

Click “Found Money” button in your Acorns account

Choose the online merchant you want to shop at

Click the “Shop Now” button to open a unique Acorns shopping session

Pay for a purchase with your linked credit or debit card

Retailer invests a designated portion of the purchase amount

Each merchant offers a different cash back rate but you can expect to have between 2% and 10% of the purchase amount invested in your Acorns account.

If you spend $100 and the merchant invests 5% of the purchase amount, you will see an extra $5 invested in your account on their behalf! Some merchants offer a fixed cash amount instead like $100 when you refinance your student loans with Sofi or $200 if you become an Airbnb host.

Acorns is continually adding more partners to the Found Money portfolio so you have more opportunities to invest while shopping online. Some of the notable partners right now include:

Airbnb

American Eagle

Lyft

Jet.com

Stitch Fixed

Walmart

Before you shop online, head to the Found Money section on Acorns first to get extra cash back. If you make a purchase directly from the retailer without activating an Acorns shopping session, you won’t receive the extra investment. You will still receive the round-up credit if you pay with your linked credit or debit card however.

How Long Does It Take To Receive the Found Money Rewards?

Although Acorns usually sends a confirmation email within 24 hours of your purchase with your Found Money amount, the actual investment won’t be made until 60 to 120 days later.

This is the one downside to cash back apps because of the lag time to deliver the money from the merchant back into your hands. The 60-day waiting period protects the merchant in case you need to request a refund which alters your cash reward balance.

How Does Acorns Invest Your Money?

Investing your spare change is what sets Acorns apart from other micro-saving apps.

Acorns adheres to the Nobel Prize-winning Modern Portfolio Theory by investing in stock and bond index ETFs that try to match the overall market performance (passive investing) instead of trying to “beat” the market (active investing) with low fund expense fees so you can earn the highest return possible without betting the farm.

This is the same investing philosophy followed by other robo-advisors like Betterment. While positive gains aren’t a guarantee because investment performance hinges on the overall market performance, Acorns won’t recklessly invest your money.

Acorns is a great way to invest in the market if you’re a beginner investor or don’t have the time to be a DIY investor.

How Acorns Determines Your Investment Portfolio

During the signup process, Acorns will ask you a few questions to gauge your investing goals and risk tolerance. Based on your responses, Acorns will a recommend a portfolio with an investing strategy that ranges from aggressive to conservative.

You’ll see the different portfolio options below to give you an idea of how Acorns will invest your money. Remember that you’re not locked into your initial portfolio recommendation and you can change your portfolio allocation at anytime if you want to be more aggressive or conservative.

Acorns only invests in iShares and Vanguard ETFs (exchange traded funds) that own small positions in a diversified basket of stocks and bonds that gives you exposure to the overall market with minimal risk. If you’re new to investing, Blackrock and Vanguard are two highly-trusted fund families.

What Does Acorns Invest In?

Acorns currently invests in the following asset classes and ETFs:

Corporate Bonds: iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond (LQD)

Government Bonds: iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond (SHY)

Small Company Stocks: Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund ETF (VB)

Real Estate: Vanguard REIT Index Fund ETF (VNQ)

Large Company Stocks: Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF (VOO)

Emerging Markets: Vanguard Emerging Markets Stocks ETF (VWO)

International Large Company Stocks: Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA)

The minimum investment is $5 and Acorns buys fractional shares of each ETF listed above. If you were to buy each ETF directly from your brokerage, you would need the exact amount of cash that a single share is trading for.

When an ETF like the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VOO) trades for $250 per share, you need at least $250 to buy one share. If you only have $100 to invest, you’ll have to find another $150 before you can buy a share or invest in another fund that trades for $100 or less but might be too aggressive for your preference.

Even if you could only afford to buy one share of VOO–or any single ETF share–your portfolio is extremely risky because it’s not diversified. If the share price climbs 20%, you’ll consider yourself a genius. But, when your single share price drops sharply, you can potentially lose all your gains in a single day.

Because Acorns can buy a partial ETF shares, you get instant diversification with every investment that instantly gives you a partial position in over 7,000 different stocks and bonds. And, Acorns automatically rebalances your portfolio with every contribution to keep you on track with your investing goals.

The Five Different Acorns Investment Portfolios

During the signup process, Acorns will recommend one of five investment portfolios based on factors including your age, income, investing goals, and whether or not you’re an aggressive or passive investor.

As you will see, conservative portfolios hold more bonds than stocks. Aggressive portfolios hold incrementally more stocks, including emerging markets, and fewer bonds to earn a higher potential return.

Conservative

The most risk-averse portfolio is the Conservative portfolio with the following asset allocation.

Large Company Stocks: 12%

Small Company Stocks: 2%

Real Estate Stocks: 2%

Government Bonds: 40%

Corporate Bonds: 40%

International Large Company Stocks: 4%

Moderately Conservative

Large Company Stocks: 24%

Small Company Stocks: 4%

Real Estate Stocks: 4%

Government Bonds: 30%

Corporate Bonds: 30%

International Large Company Stocks: 8%

Moderate

Large Company Stocks: 29%

Small Company Stocks: 10%

Emerging Market Stocks: 3%

Real Estate Stocks: 6%

Government Bonds: 20%

Corporate Bonds: 20%

International Large Company Stocks: 12%

Moderately Aggressive

Large Company Stocks: 38%

Small Company Stocks: 14%

Emerging Market Stocks: 4%

Real Estate Stocks: 8%

Government Bonds: 10%

Corporate Bonds: 10%

International Large Company Stocks: 16%

Aggressive

Large Company Stocks: 40%

Small Company Stocks: 20%

Emerging Market Stocks: 10%

Real Estate Stocks: 10%

International Large Company Stocks: 20%

Young investors will most likely be placed in this portfolio because stocks historically outperform bonds long-term. While owning stocks is more volatile than bonds, you have a longer time horizon to recover any short-term portfolio losses.

Can You Change Your Acorns Investment Allocation?

If you want to be more cautious or aggressive than your current Acorns portfolio choice, you can change your portfolio allocation at any time for free!

Let’s say you currently have the Aggressive portfolio but you’re planning on withdrawing your balance soon to pay for a large purchase. You don’t want to lose all your earnings in a sudden 10% market correction, similar to the February 2018 stock market correction, and then you don’t have enough money to cover your planned expense.

To hedge against this risk, you can switch to the Conservative or Moderately Conservative portfolio allocation that holds at least 60% bonds which are historically more stable than stocks.

Once you decide to invest more aggressively, you can select a more aggressive portfolio even if it’s two days from now.

To change your investment portfolio, click on the “Profile” tab then “Portfolio.” The different portfolio choices from left to right with an incrementally more aggressive investing strategy.

How Do You Withdraw Acorns Investments?

Eventually, you’ll need to withdraw some of your Acorns investments when you accomplish your investing goals.

Withdrawing your Acorns investments is as easy as contributing money.

When you’re ready to make a withdrawal, you tell Acorns how much money you want to withdraw and which bank account to send the money to via direct deposit. You can send the money to a new checking or savings account by providing the routing and account numbers.

Acorns doesn’t mail paper checks.

How Long Does it Take To Receive an Acorns Withdrawal?

It takes between three and six days to receive an Acorns withdrawal. This is due to federal regulations that require a two-day settlement period after you sell an investment. The same settlement rule applies to every investment brokerage and not exclusive to Acorns.

If you sell your investments on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are the two-day settlement period, and you can expect to receive your funds as soon as Thursday.

Are Acorns Investments Taxable?

Yes. Any dividend income you earn from Acorns is taxable and will need to be reported on your tax return just like you need to report your bank account interest and your other investment accounts. It’s a small price to pay for earning passive income, but you’re still richer than before.

Acorns will send you a Form 1099 before March 15th for the prior tax year. While you receive most of your tax forms in late January or early February, your Acorns 1099 might be delayed because they are waiting to report the investment income from your real estate investments.

What is Acorns Later?

Acorns Later is the newest account type from Acorns. It’s a Traditional IRA (Individual Retirement Account) funded with your pre-tax income. You might prefer an Acorns Later account to reduce your taxable income for the current tax year.

Your investments will grow tax-deferred meaning you won’t pay any tax now, but instead on the withdrawal value in retirement.

Do You Need to Be an Existing Acorns Member to Join Acorns Later?

At this moment, yes, you need to be an existing Acorns members with a taxable, non-retirement to fund an Acorns Later IRA.

Once you open an Acorns Later account, you must make a minimum investment of $5 to get started; just like your regular Acorns account.

Is Acorns or Acorns Later Better?

It depends on how soon you want to access your investments. If you don’t plan on touching your Acorns investments until retirement, the Acorns Later account is better because you won’t have to pay taxes on your dividend income until you retire. Plus, all contributions reduce your taxable income for this tax year.

If you’re not sure how soon you want to withdraw your Acorns investments, you should open a standard Acorns account. Having the extra flexibility is better than paying the early withdrawal penalties that can erase all of your cumulative dividend income.

Because Acorns is a micro-investing app, it probably isn’t going to be your primary investment account. Most of your investments need to be with your employer 401k plan or with a regular brokerage like Betterment or Vanguard. So don’t worry too much about the tax implications from your Acorns account because you’re only investing your loose change.

Other Things You Didn’t Know About Acorns

Here are a few other things you might not know about the Acorns app that help make saving and investing fun!

Track Your Past, Present, and Potential Investing Progress

Once you’re logged into your Acorns account, you can view your investing progress so far and your potential future progress based on your age and investing rate.

Every time you log into Acorns, the first thing you’ll see is your current account balance. Directly above your current balance, you’ll see three buttons: Past, Present, Potential.

These three buttons are the secret sauce to navigating the Acorns dashboard like a boss.

Past

The “Past” button shows your lifetime Acorns app performance. Some of the statistics you’ll see includes your total amount invested, total gain or loss, referral bonuses, Found Money shopping rewards, and total withdrawal amounts.

You can also track your itemized earning history for your round-ups, recurring investments, and referral bonuses.

Present

You will visit the Present screen the most because it’s the primary screen for your Acorns dashboard. Besides your account balance, you can adjust your round-ups multiplier, schedule recurring investments, and quickly spot the best Found Money rewards offers.

This screen also shows your recent earning history so you can easily see if the purchase you made yesterday has been credited to your Acorns round-ups balance yet.

Potential

Any investing app worth their salt includes a projected investment calculator. When you first click the “Potential” button, you will see your projected account balance based on your age.

By clicking the “Change My Future” button you can see how adding a recurring investment on either a daily, weekly, or monthly basis can give you more money in the future. The projection calculator will show two lines on the graph plotting your balance trajectory:

The dotted line is the projected balance at your current investment rate

The solid line is your total projected balance including interest

While an extra $5 a week doesn’t seem like much now, it can grow to an extra $10,000 in 20 years. Over the next two decades, you contribute $4,800 during that time frame and earn $5,000 in dividends; that’s better than any savings account.

Refer Your Friends and Get $5

Acorns pays you $5 for every friend and family member you refer to Acorns. They will get a $5 bonus too and they begin saving money on a regular basis just like you! And, it might be the easiest money you’ve ever earned.

Integrate Acorns with Your Mint.com Account

If you use the free online budgeting app Mint, you can link your Acorns account to track your investing progress with your monthly budget.

When you log into your Mint account, you can add your Acorns account by clicking “Settings” button followed by the “Accounts” and “Plus” buttons to enter your Acorns login information. It only takes a few seconds and you’re all set!

Acorns Pros

It only takes $5 to get started

Five different portfolios with instant diversification

Three ways to automate your investing

Round-ups let you invest each time you shop

Automatic portfolio re-balancing

Mobile app is easy-to-use

Acorns Cons

Monthly feed erode cumulative investment returns

Investments can lose value during stock market corrections

Cannot invest in individual stocks or ETFs outside the Acorns portfolio

No option to invest in REIT or Real Estate

Alternatives to Acorns

Maybe you don’t think Acorns is a good fit for you. No worries.

These three micro-investing apps might be a better fit for your saving and investing habits.

All three of these alternatives let you fund your account with one-time or recurring contributions from your checking account. What separates Acorns apart from these other apps is the round-ups and Found Money investment options because the other recommendations only support bank account transfers.

Only one of these alternatives features round-up investing and none of them offer online shopping cash back rewards.

Betterment

Betterment doesn’t offer round-up investing, but you only need $1 to make your first investment. You can fund future investments with recurring or one-time withdrawals from your bank account. The management fee is 0.25% on your entire balance which is more affordable than Acorns for balances less than $5,000.

Betterment also adheres to the Modern Portfolio Theory and your money will be invested in a basket of iShares and Vanguard stock and bond ETFs based on your risk tolerance.

This can be your best Acorns alternative if you can live without round-up investing and still prefer to have the investing app handle the day-to-day portfolio management decisions.

And, Betterment can also double as your primary brokerage account too which means you can keep all of your investments with Betterment until retirement if you prefer automated, index investing.

M1 Finance

Another growing micro-investing app is M1 Finance, a completely free micro-investing app that lets you buy fractional shares of your favorite stocks and ETFs or you can pick an “expert pie” ranging from ultra-conservative holding 98% bonds to the ultra-aggressive pie that holds 99% stocks.

M1 Finance requires an initial $100 investment and you can only make one-time or recurring monthly investments. After your account is funded, the minimum investment is $1.

Robinhood

Robinhood started in 2013 and has grown in popularity among the micro-investing community. Unlike Acorns, you can invest inside stocks, options, and even cryptocurrency in addition to ETFs.

The one thing I really like about Robinhood is the simplicity of it. It’s definitely a micro-investing platform targeting newbies or the less-experienced investor. You won’t find a lot of bells and whistles, and even the investing language they use is simpler than most other micro-investing platforms.

Robinhood is also completely free to sign up and they don’t charge any commissions. They do make money from Robinhood Gold (an add-on service which is optional), any interest from customer cash accounts and rebates from trading venues.

Also, unlike Acorns, Robinhood will allow you to trade full stocks. This is perfect for the investor who may not be ready to open up a brokerage account and start trading stocks and instead is looking to tip-toe into stocks via micro-investing.

You can access Robinhood from their desktop or mobile apps on both iOs and Android. Robinhood is for U.S. customers only.

Stash

Stash also features round-ups and recurring investments on a weekly or monthly basis and has the same fee structure as Acorns–$1 per month until your account balance reaches $5,000 then 0.25% annually–and is the most similar alternative to Acorns.

The biggest difference between Stash and Acorns is how your money is invested as Stash gives you more flexibility that DIY investors might like. Acorns takes a more direct approach by investing in an ETF portfolio based on your risk tolerance.

You have 40 different investing options with Stash so you can invest in a conservative, moderate, or an aggressive ETF similar to Acorns, but you can also invest in themed ETFs too. For example, you can invest in missions and causes like clean technology or gender diversity. Or, you can invest in a specific sector like technology, cybersecurity, China, or U.S. Treasury bonds.

Whether you want to invest in one ETF or all 40, you can make your own portfolio with Stash. Bear in mind that your Stash investments can be more volatile if you invest your entire balance in one ETF, especially if it’s a particular sector like technology or Europe.

Summary

Acorns is a fun way to maximize your saving potential every time you use your credit or debit card by forcing you to set aside some of your money. You won’t be able to retire from your Acorns investments, but it’s an excellent way to squirrel away cash you would spend on lattes and movie tickets if it remained in your checking account.

Join Acorns Today

Investing Your Spare Change with Acorns published first on https://mysingaporepools.weebly.com/

0 notes

andrewdburton · 5 years

Text

How to make money fast: Quick ways to earn money in 2019

Let’s face it. Most of us, at one point or another, have been faced with a financial emergency, or a plain, old-fashioned cash crunch. It’s definitely not a fun spot to be in. While there are steps we can take to avoid such situations (more on that later), that’s often the last thing on our minds when we need to come up with money — quick.

To assist, I’ve compiled the following list of money-making ideas. While some of the items included are more lucrative than others (you’ll never get rich taking surveys, for example), they all share a common theme: making money fast. Ready? Let’s dive in.

And before anyone mentions it, yes we're aware of the irony of publishing an article about making money fast at a website called Get Rich Slowly.

Sell Your Old Stuff

I’ll kick off the list with an obvious one: selling your old stuff. After all, is there a faster way to make money? If you walked a few steps to your basement right now, or stepped outside to the garage, I’m willing to bet that you’d find some junk lying around that someone else could use:

Old computers and video games.

Sports equipment your kids have grown out of.

That extra bike that’s never ridden.

Your old collectibles. (J.D. sold his comic books. You could sell your baseball cards.)

Once you’ve come to grips with parting with your junk, selling it is as easy as taking a few pictures, and posting an ad on Craigslist, or your local Facebook Buy and Sell. If you need some inspiration, here’s a list of 12 surprisingly valuable things that are lying around your house.

Survey Junkie

Taking online surveys isn’t going to make you rich, but that’s not your goal here. You need to make money fast, and survey sites like Survey Junkie will help you do just that. In fact, you can start earning within a few minutes of signing up, and get paid as soon as you accumulate $10 in rewards.

Survey Junkie will pay you for each survey you complete, in the form of Paypal credits or gift cards to your favorite retail stores. The more surveys you take, the more you’ll make. The best part is that you can take surveys while doing other things, like watching TV, or listening to music, making it an easy way to earn some quick cash.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is similar to Survey Junkie, but they take things a step further, by giving you more ways to earn cash and rewards. In addition to completing surveys, Swagbucks will pay you to browse the internet, play games, and shop online. They’ll even send you a daily survey, and a daily poll, as a way to earn rewards faster.

With Swagbucks, you won’t have to wait before redeeming your rewards. While you’ll need $25 worth of Swagbucks to move cash to your Paypal account, you can redeem points for gift cards worth as little as $1. In fact, when I checked out the Swagbucks rewards page, I noticed $3 Amazon gift cards advertised.

Acorns

Remember your goal – to make money fast. When you sign up for Acorns using my exclusive link, you’ll receive a $5 credit to kick off your account. Now, I wouldn’t suggest that you go to all that trouble for $5, but with Acorns, you’re getting so much more. Acorns is an investment app that makes saving money easy. You can open an account on your mobile phone in a couple of minutes, collect your $5, and be on your way to building that emergency fund, or saving for your next special purchase.

Open Your Acorns Account and Earn $5

To help you get there, Acorns uses an innovative feature, called round up savings. Acorns syncs to your debit or credit card and then rounds up the “spare change” whenever you spend. For example, let’s say you buy a pack of gum for $1.25. Acorns will round to the nearest dollar, and set aside .75 into your Acorns investment account. Because the amounts are so small, you’ll hardly notice the money leaving your account, but you’ll be surprised how quickly the savings adds up.

Acorns works so well, in fact, that it’s my top choice for investment app for 2019.

Drive with Uber

If you have a clean driving record, a reliable vehicle, and enjoy being around people, driving for a rideshare service like Uber is a great way to make some extra money, and fast. One perk to this job is the flexibility it offers. You decide when, and how much you want to work.

Once you’ve signed up with Uber, most drivers report that it only takes about 3-5 days to be approved.

Here's more about the pros and cons of becoming a rideshare driver.

Deliver Food with UberEats

If driving for Uber sounds enticing, but you’d rather not spend your time making small talk with strangers, you could decide to deliver food with UberEats. You use the app to select deliveries that are in your area. The best part is that you decide when you want to work, and how much. Keep in mind, you will make more money during peak periods.

Rent Out Your Ride on Turo

Take advantage of your car’s downtime by renting it out to someone who needs a ride. Turo is a peer-to-peer car-sharing app that makes it easy to rent out your car. Once you’re set up through Turo, list your car on the app, wait for a request, and be ready to accept or decline. Keep in mind, your car will need to meet Turo’s vehicle requirements, and the nicer it is, the more money you can charge.

Rent Out a Room With Airbnb

If you have a spare bedroom in your home, you can rent it out to a short term guest, on Airbnb. Some people will even rent out their entire home, if they have another place where they can stay.

Not only is this a great way to make money quick, but if it’s something you enjoy, you could turn it into a regular income stream. A great perk with Airbnb is having the flexibility to decide when your space will be available, and how much you’ll charge.

Employee Referral Programs

Any recruiter will tell you, it’s tough for companies to find good people these days. As a result, many organizations will pay their own employees a bonus for successfully referring new talent.

Depending on the role, and the demand for the position, you could be eligible to receive hundreds, even thousands of dollars by bringing in a new employee. Not only is this a quick way to make money, but it requires almost no effort on your part. You’re simply connecting to parties.

Babysitting or At-Home Daycare

In today’s society, most families are dual income, with both parents working outside the home. Because of this, there is a constant demand for reliable childcare. If you’re a natural caregiver, and enjoy being around kids, you can make good money by offering to provide childcare within your local community. Whether it’s babysitting or an at-home daycare, it won’t take long to find your first client. Use your friends and family to get the word out, or notify your Facebook community, and you’ll be making money in no time.

Teach English with VIP Kid

If you enjoy teaching, consider putting your English skills to good use by becoming an online tutor. Websites like VIP Kid source clients for you, and the pay is pretty good too. It’s not uncommon to make $20-30/hour teaching online.

Tutoring is something that can be done in person as well. In fact, during the school year, there’s no shortage of students in your community in need of help with their studies. Check with your local high school, or get the word out on your community Facebook page.

J.D.'s note: For eighteen months, I met with a Spanish tutor three times each week. Aly had moved to the U.S. from Peru, and she found that tutoring was a fantastic way for her to make money.

Rent Out Your RV With Outdoorsy

If you own an RV, Outdoorsy will match you with people who are looking to rent a trailer or motorhome, for their next summer adventure. At rates as high as $150/day, or more, this is a great way to make money fast. Head to Outdoorsy, and find out how you can get your RV making money for you.

Collect Rewards With Drop App

Money doesn’t always have to arrive in the form of cash. Drop allows you to earn points when you shop at your favorite retailers, then redeem your rewards for gift cards at places like Starbucks, or Amazon. Drop works by syncing to your debit and/or credit card, and keeping track of your purchases. You don’t need to worry about clipping coupons, or scan receipts to receive discounts, Drop does all the work for you.

Download the free app to start earning with Drop!

Earn $50 per Year With the Nielsen Ratings App

For decades, Nielsen has been tracking TV ratings. But did you know that they will pay you to download their app to your computer or smartphone? Doing so allows them to compile data by tracking your internet usage. No need to worry however, your anonymity is guaranteed, and according to Neilson, the app won’t slow your device’s performance in the least.

Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? There is a BIG caveat, however. You must be selected by Nielsen. That’s because Nielsen families are chosen using a scientific process. That said, it’s good to know about this easy money-making opportunity, in case you are ever approached by Nielsen.

Take Advantage of Bank Signup Bonuses

This is a great way to make some quick money. Banks everywhere are in a constant battle for new customers. The financial services industry is highly competitive, and companies know that if they can secure your day to day banking business, they’ll have a shot at your mortgage and your investments as well.

While these promotions come and go, it’s not uncommon to be offered a few hundred dollars when you open a new checking account with a bank, providing that you meet the qualifying criteria. This usually includes hooking up your automatic payroll deposit and completing a couple of online bill payments, that kind of thing.

Earn Credit Card Rewards

I’m a big fan of credit card rewards, but I’ll be the first to admit that using credit cards as a way of making money can be dangerous, and definitely isn’t for everyone. If you’re not paying off your credit card balance in full each month, or if using a credit card creates a temptation to overspend, then having a rewards credit card will cost you more money than you will ever make.

That said, a cashback, or travel rewards credit card can be a great way to make extra money. Many premium cards come with a welcome bonus, such as a couple hundred dollars cashback upfront, or enough travel points to get you a free flight somewhere. Have an upcoming trip planned? This could be a great way to subsidize the cost. Head here for more information on the best credit card rewards.

Make Money as a Freelance Writer

If you have interest, or experience in a specific area and love to write, there’s a good chance you can make money online as a freelance writer. What I love about this side hustle, is that it’s something you can do on your own schedule from the comfort of your living room. Not only that, but you can make good money. The website Problogger has an active job board, where you can browse, and apply for, freelance writing gigs across a wide range of niches.

Note: Many former Get Rich Slowly staff writers have gone on to become professional freelance writers with lucrative careers.

Advertise Your Freelance Services on Fiverr

In addition to writing, there are no shortage of services you can offer as a freelancer. Graphic design, bookkeeping, social media management – these are all services that small businesses will pay you to provide. One of the best ways to find clients and start making money is by joining a freelance marketplace like Upwork, or Fiverr.

Teach Music Lessons

Who said that a musician needs to live like a starving artist? If you are skilled on any number of musical instruments, you can make good money teaching private lessons. Ask your local music store if you can post an ad on their bulletin board, or advertise through Craigslist or Facebook. Early September is a great time of year to get started, as students are back to school and looking to start up music lessons after the summer break.

Earn Cash Back With Rakuten (Formerly Ebates)

Rakuten, formerly known as Ebates, makes it easy to earn cashback when you shop online at top retailers, such as Amazon, Kohl’s, and Microsoft. Sign up with Rakuten, and gain access to hundreds of partner retail stores via links directly on their site. Rakuten will keep track of your cash rebates, which can be as high as 40%, when you factor in limited time offers. The best part? Receive an automatic $10 bonus when you sign up for Rakuten, and earn an additional $25 when you refer friends or family.

Deliver Food With DoorDash

DoorDash is one of a number of app-powered food delivery services that have popped up in recent years. If you need to make money quick, becoming a delivery driver for Doordash may be the perfect solution. In fact, the signup box on their website reads, “Get Your First Check This Week”.

Ask for a Raise

Perhaps the fastest way to make extra money is by leveraging the job you already have. Unfortunately, many people don’t think about this, and instead feel like they need to take on something extra. I’ll finish with a few ways to increase your 9-5 income.

You’ve probably heard it said, “If you don’t ask, the answer will always be, no”. To most companies, a valuable employee is worth their weight in gold. Part of this is due to how much time and money it takes to hire and train someone new. Chances are, your employer is willing to pay you more, but you need to ask. If you’re able to effectively communicate your value to your boss, you may be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

Since the early says of Get Rich Slowly, we've advocated learning how to negotiate your salary. It's one of the best ways to boost your income — now and in the future.

Apply for a Promotion

When was the last time you considered applying for a promotion? Not only is a new job a great way to make more money, challenging yourself to step out of your comfort zone will further develop your skills, and help you grow as a person. If you’re having trouble getting promoted at your current company, you may decide to go to take your skills somewhere else. Here’s an article that gives 10 reasons successful people change jobs more often.

Take Advantage of Any Unused Benefits.

If you’re not taking advantage of all of the benefits your employer is offering, you may be leaving cold hard cash on the table. Far too many employees don’t take the time to understand what’s available, and as they say, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. Read through your employee benefits package, or speak to an HR representative if you have questions. There’s money to be made, from health spending balances and 401K matches, to affordable insurance coverage and employee discounts.

Ask to Work Overtime

Not every job offers this opportunity, but if yours does, consider volunteering to work overtime, if you’re needing to make more money fast. Overtime work saves you from having to start something extra in your spare time, such as a second job, or a time-consuming side hustle. Remember, the goal is to make money fast. Either way, always strive for a healthy balance between time at work, and time away. The last thing you want is to feel burned out.

Final Thoughts on Making Money Fast

At the outset of this article, I mentioned that there are ways to avoid finding yourself with a shortfall of cash. While we can never be prepared for absolutely every emergency (nor should we try to be), we can make life a little easier with some advanced planning.

My best advice is to build an emergency fund. This can be as little as $500, or enough to cover several months worth of expenses, it’s up to you. Having an emergency fund will not only reduce your stress level, but it will also decrease your odds of having to use a credit card to cover a financial emergency, and that is a good thing.

In the meantime, my hope is that you feel more confident about making money fast, should the need arise.

The post How to make money fast: Quick ways to earn money in 2019 appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

from Finance https://www.getrichslowly.org/make-money-fast/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes

kennethherrerablog · 5 years

Text

How This App Allows You to Build Wealth With Your Spare Change

A better solution is Acorns.

Acorns is an app that takes your spare change and doesn’t just set it aside for you, but rather invests it for you using a method called “micro-investing.”

Micro-Investing

Instead of spending it on a double latte or a drive-thru supper because “you found five bucks,” what if you could put your loose change into a digital money jar that earns interest?

There are many micro-investing platforms to choose from, but this post is going to focus on one of our favorite and one of the most widely-known platforms; Acorns.

In this Acorns app review, you’ll find out everything you ever wanted to know about it and how you can build a small nest egg with minimal effort.

What is Acorns?

The best way to describe Acorns is it’s an online money jar that also invests your spare change.

Acorns is a micro-investing app that collects your spare change in three different ways:

Rounding up your debit and credit card purchases,

Recurring daily, weekly, or monthly investments (optional)

Cash back rewards when you shop online at select retailers

How to Access Acorns

You can download the Acorns app from any Android or Apple mobile device. Acorns can also be accessed online via their desktop platform here.

Does Acorns Replace Your Savings Account?

No!!

You still need to keep an emergency fund and other savings you can’t afford to lose inside an FDIC-insured bank account.

Before you begin investing with Acorns, make sure you set aside $1,000 into an emergency fund to cover life’s unexpected expenses.

Who Can Join Acorns?

You must meet the three requirements to join Acorns:

At least 18 years old

Be a resident of the USA

Own an active checking account

Why Join Acorns?

The #1 reason to join Acorns is that you save money on a regular basis and can earn more interest than your bank account.

You will benefit most from Acorns if you’re one of the following:

Do not currently invest or save money for the future

Want to save money every time you spend money

Want a 100% “hands-off” investing app

Using Acorns can be a win-win proposition to build wealth because:

Develop the habit of saving and investing money each month

Investments usually earn more interest than your checking account

Is Acorns Free?

Acorns is free for college students with a dot.edu email address for up to four years.

While you might initially balk at paying $12 a year to have an app invest your loose change, take a second to look at it from a different perspective.

Also, don’t forget your investments earn regular dividends that can offset or exceed the monthly fee as well.

Paying one buck a month can be well worth the additional peace of mind you’ll receive by automating your savings process with minimal effort.

How to Fund Your Acorns Account

There are three different ways to fund your Acorns account:

Round-ups

Recurring investments

Found Money shopping rewards

You can participate in one, two, or all three of these funding streams. So decide which ones work best for you and start saving.

Round-Up Investing

Here’s how Acorns’ round-up investing feature works:

Link your credit or debit cards to your Acorns account

Acorns monitors your card spending and “rounds-up” each purchase to the next dollar

Your round-up balance is invested each time it reaches $5 and withdraws the balance from your checking account

Assuming you’re like the average American and use your debit card 23 times a month, Acorns can easily invest $5 a month assuming the average round-up is 25 cents per transaction.

Acorns Round-Up Multiplier

If you choose to use the round-up multiplier, you do have a total of three options:

2x multiplier

3x multiplier

10x multiplier

Acorns Won’t Withdraw Money Until Round-Ups Reach $5

Even if it takes you two months to reach $5 in round-ups, Acorns won’t withdraw any money from your checking account until your current round-up balance reaches the $5 minimum.

If you schedule a recurring investment, that contribution will be separate from your round-ups balance and you will still have to reach the $5 round-ups minimum before they can be invested.

Recurring Investments

Automate Weekly and Monthly Investments

One-Time Investments

You might decide to make a one-time investment to fund your account during the signup process. Five dollars gets you started and the money will deposit within three business days.

Found Money

Get Business Partners to Invest in You

Any rewards you earn from Found Money are in addition to your spending round-ups. To get extra cash rewards to invest, you need to follow these steps:

Click “Found Money” button in your Acorns account

Choose the online merchant you want to shop at

Click the “Shop Now” button to open a unique Acorns shopping session

Pay for a purchase with your linked credit or debit card

Retailer invests a designated portion of the purchase amount

Each merchant offers a different cash back rate but you can expect to have between 2% and 10% of the purchase amount invested in your Acorns account.

Acorns is continually adding more partners to the Found Money portfolio so you have more opportunities to invest while shopping online. Some of the notable partners right now include:

Airbnb

American Eagle

Lyft

Jet.com

Stitch Fixed

Walmart

How Long Does It Take To Receive the Found Money Rewards?

Although Acorns usually sends a confirmation email within 24 hours of your purchase with your Found Money amount, the actual investment won’t be made until 60 to 120 days later.

How Does Acorns Invest Your Money?

Investing your spare change is what sets Acorns apart from other micro-saving apps.

Acorns is a great way to invest in the market if you’re a beginner investor or don’t have the time to be a DIY investor.

How Acorns Determines Your Investment Portfolio

What Does Acorns Invest In?

Acorns currently invests in the following asset classes and ETFs:

Corporate Bonds: iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond (LQD)

Government Bonds: iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond (SHY)

Small Company Stocks: Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund ETF (VB)

Real Estate: Vanguard REIT Index Fund ETF (VNQ)

Large Company Stocks: Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF (VOO)

Emerging Markets: Vanguard Emerging Markets Stocks ETF (VWO)

International Large Company Stocks: Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA)

The Five Different Acorns Investment Portfolios

Conservative

The most risk-averse portfolio is the Conservative portfolio with the following asset allocation.

Large Company Stocks: 12%

Small Company Stocks: 2%

Real Estate Stocks: 2%

Government Bonds: 40%

Corporate Bonds: 40%

International Large Company Stocks: 4%

Moderately Conservative

Large Company Stocks: 24%

Small Company Stocks: 4%

Real Estate Stocks: 4%

Government Bonds: 30%

Corporate Bonds: 30%

International Large Company Stocks: 8%

Moderate

Large Company Stocks: 29%

Small Company Stocks: 10%

Emerging Market Stocks: 3%

Real Estate Stocks: 6%

Government Bonds: 20%

Corporate Bonds: 20%

International Large Company Stocks: 12%

Moderately Aggressive

Large Company Stocks: 38%

Small Company Stocks: 14%

Emerging Market Stocks: 4%

Real Estate Stocks: 8%

Government Bonds: 10%

Corporate Bonds: 10%

International Large Company Stocks: 16%

Aggressive

Large Company Stocks: 40%

Small Company Stocks: 20%

Emerging Market Stocks: 10%

Real Estate Stocks: 10%

International Large Company Stocks: 20%

Can You Change Your Acorns Investment Allocation?

If you want to be more cautious or aggressive than your current Acorns portfolio choice, you can change your portfolio allocation at any time for free!

To hedge against this risk, you can switch to the Conservative or Moderately Conservative portfolio allocation that holds at least 60% bonds which are historically more stable than stocks.

Once you decide to invest more aggressively, you can select a more aggressive portfolio even if it’s two days from now.

To change your investment portfolio, click on the “Profile” tab then “Portfolio.” The different portfolio choices from left to right with an incrementally more aggressive investing strategy.

How Do You Withdraw Acorns Investments?

Eventually, you’ll need to withdraw some of your Acorns investments when you accomplish your investing goals.

Withdrawing your Acorns investments is as easy as contributing money.

Acorns doesn’t mail paper checks.

How Long Does it Take To Receive an Acorns Withdrawal?

If you sell your investments on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are the two-day settlement period, and you can expect to receive your funds as soon as Thursday.

Are Acorns Investments Taxable?

What is Acorns Later?

Your investments will grow tax-deferred meaning you won’t pay any tax now, but instead on the withdrawal value in retirement.

Do You Need to Be an Existing Acorns Member to Join Acorns Later?

At this moment, yes, you need to be an existing Acorns members with a taxable, non-retirement to fund an Acorns Later IRA.

Once you open an Acorns Later account, you must make a minimum investment of $5 to get started; just like your regular Acorns account.

Is Acorns or Acorns Later Better?

Other Things You Didn’t Know About Acorns

Here are a few other things you might not know about the Acorns app that help make saving and investing fun!

Track Your Past, Present, and Potential Investing Progress

Once you’re logged into your Acorns account, you can view your investing progress so far and your potential future progress based on your age and investing rate.

Every time you log into Acorns, the first thing you’ll see is your current account balance. Directly above your current balance, you’ll see three buttons: Past, Present, Potential.

These three buttons are the secret sauce to navigating the Acorns dashboard like a boss.

Past

You can also track your itemized earning history for your round-ups, recurring investments, and referral bonuses.

Present

This screen also shows your recent earning history so you can easily see if the purchase you made yesterday has been credited to your Acorns round-ups balance yet.

Potential

Any investing app worth their salt includes a projected investment calculator. When you first click the “Potential” button, you will see your projected account balance based on your age.

The dotted line is the projected balance at your current investment rate

The solid line is your total projected balance including interest

Refer Your Friends and Get $5

Integrate Acorns with Your Mint.com Account

If you use the free online budgeting app Mint, you can link your Acorns account to track your investing progress with your monthly budget.

Acorns Pros

It only takes $5 to get started

Five different portfolios with instant diversification

Three ways to automate your investing

Round-ups let you invest each time you shop

Automatic portfolio rebalancing

Mobile app is easy-to-use

Acorns Cons

Monthly feed erode cumulative investment returns

Investments can lose value during stock market corrections

Cannot invest in individual stocks or ETFs outside the Acorns portfolio

Alternatives to Acorns

Maybe you don’t think Acorns is a good fit for you. No worries.

These three micro-investing apps might be a better fit for your saving and investing habits.

Only one of these alternatives features round-up investing and none of them offer online shopping cash back rewards.

Stash

Betterment

Betterment also adheres to the Modern Portfolio Theory and your money will be invested in a basket of iShares and Vanguard stock and bond ETFs based on your risk tolerance.

This can be your best Acorns alternative if you can live without round-up investing and still prefer to have the investing app handle the day-to-day portfolio management decisions.

And, Betterment can also double as your primary brokerage account too which means you can keep all of your investments with Betterment until retirement if you prefer automated, index investing.

M1 Finance

M1 Finance requires an initial $100 investment and you can only make one-time or recurring monthly investments. After your account is funded, the minimum investment is $1.

Summary

Join Acorns Today

How This App Allows You to Build Wealth With Your Spare Change published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

0 notes

youinmyhoodnowson · 5 years

Text

UK Payday Loan Lender Fined For Fraudulent Practices

Payday loans online do help when fico scores are looking bad. Even after bankruptcy, you can still get a payday loan online encourage with emergency costs. It is good bluelineloan.com that you have a destination to go to get some good an easy loan, but rebuilding your credit ought to be your main focus. In order to start rebuilding, a fantastic spot to start is with a secured credit card. One of the best helpful information on free television is, of course, the internet. Several sites provide the latest episodes of popular T.V. shows, helping you to maintain your latest broadcasts and never having to go to a payday lender. In fact, many channels will post new episodes onto their sites your day as soon as they air, including many primetime networks like ABC, NBC, and CBS, where you can find full instances of your favorite shows such asThe Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy, and The Office. For South Park fans, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have allowed for every episode to be shown on South Park Studios. Be warned that these episodes are presented uncensored, so if you feel already offended by the bleeped out versions then this website isn't to suit your needs. An effective APR will be the actual sum of money you will pay on a loan when considering all factors. These factors include fees and compound interest. The compound interest is interest put into the principle amount, thus gathering interest also. For example, if you have the above loan of $100 and possess accrued an extra $10 in interest, the $10 gets put into the entire principle so that you will are in possession of $110 at the %15 percent rate, thus raising the cost you could pay in a year by $1.50. Of course $1.50 is not a tremendous amount, but understand that the higher the amount of the borrowed funds, the higher the discrepancy is going to be between your nominal APR as well as the effective APR. A responsible payday lender is going to take time for you to explain all fees included in a payday loan or advance loan. Other creditors who bill monthly could have their APRs calculated for 12 payments per year. Their term monthly interest is often lower while they expect the repayments to be time consuming over a few years. They can afford to set the interest rate low because of the longevity from the payback period. They earn their revenue over time. Getting references from friends, relatives or colleagues that have utilized the assistance of a cash payday loan provider can help you in enabling instant cash. You can get helpful tips about providers of pay day loans using the assurance of knowing anyone who has gone through the experience. Visiting the Better Business Bureau's how do people determine if you'll find any grievances against the lender can help you steer clear of predatory lenders. Reading opinions and reviews about lenders may help a whole lot at the same time being that these are usually published by people who may have went through the lender to borrow. Even those who can not borrow loans due to their weak credit score score may apply for cash loans or pay day without any hesitation. Despite the fact that they are governed by state laws, the curiosity rates they cost are a whole bunch, sure hundreds, of times greater than what a bank or credit union would charge. That's because some companies supply loans solely to people with checking accounts and even fewer supply people greater than 14 days to repay their loans. Do cleansing and searching for elderly individuals who cannot get their purchasing by themselves if you bought a automotive or drive them to their doctor's appointments. Folks that live from pay test to pay check may often discover themselves in this example when their automotive wants restore or they get sick and should see a physician. Many use their cash loan for home improvements, gifts, payments, automobile repairs, holidays, lodge prices, clothes, food and a number of different causes. There are as many reasons for stumbling as there are folks and we're every distinctive in the truth that we've got our personal set of expectations and our own motion/reaction to circumstances. As soon as we are able to see that once we avail these loans to fulfill our monetary necessities they've been created for, individuals never be any issue.

Both the secured private loan and the unsecured private mortgage can take from anywhere from a couple of days to a week or extra to get both accepted or rejected. How fast can competitors catch up? It doesn't matter what form of crediting you select - with our service, you're going to get quick money, comprehensible phrases and circumstances and no hidden charges are required. You're going to submit an application on the net giving your paycheck info, checking account information and references. So, you should have an account where the money shall be deposited to make it easy for you and the lender. It's always in your interest to look round for the lender who is beneficial to mitigate your credit situation by providing you poor credit score loans on instantaneous resolution. Whereas we will never condone blanket censorship of promoting, on steadiness, the choice to ban this advert was the one truthful and just thing to do. We are going to always let you already know what you will need to pay and when, earlier than making a decision to borrow from us and all through your time as a buyer with us.

By way of availing checkless payday loans, there are few terms and conditions that you want to meet at the time of availing loan. The applying process for a free payday loan is straightforward; no faxing is required. To be absolutely clear, the price of a Payday loan with Uncle Buck is clearly shown on our loans calculator and within the documentation, you receive prior to funding your loan. A scholar mortgage is means of borrowing money to assist with the price of your greater training. With the financial state of affairs the best way it's now and folks hardly making it from verify to verify, it occurs all too typically. Discover free, confidential recommendation now utilizing our free debt advice locator instrument. What's extra, they work in their offices using their instruments and staff. If you're not sure, get some advice from a credit counselor or debt advisor. Although it by no means hurts to have an excellent credit rating, getting a mortgage with unhealthy credit score is just not one thing you've gotten to worry about.

We now have good news for you! Have pressing lined up needs to fulfill? Normally, you only have to have a device with an Internet connection. The money you have got in your financial savings account will then turn into the loan's security. The loan amount is withdrawn from my account and the next fee on the loan from the borrower can be deposited again into my account with interest. Flexibility - Usually, the amount you owe is immediately debited out of your bank account when the repayment time period expires. Each month you'll receive one dollar of principle with 5% curiosity added as cash again into your account. The whole means of getting one of those loans is very expedient to say the least. One of the foremost vital problems regarding the day loan is that the exceptionally high ranges of interest that every will accrue. Earlier than agreeing to your borrowed funds, study whether you'll be satisfied with the repayment terms together with curiosity.

Don't be surprised if you end up having to pay back twice as a lot cash from your quick private loan, after you add within the interest expenses. After all, in terms of looking for a big private loan, having a large sufficient income and a healthy debt-to-earnings ratio is way more important. This means that a person often cannot borrow greater than his revenue. Take the time to make use of the Internet not only to hunt down potential loans however to learn reviews relating to potential banks. Publisher: Kevin Simpson In the mortgage world, it is the banks who're the most important lenders. The web utility takes very much less time as you might be required to complete a easy type. As per your financial necessities, you're versatile to use for such loan. A cosigner is probably the very best possibility, and positively makes, securing mortgage approval much easier. It's because the loan is granted on the again of an upcoming paycheck.

0 notes

themoneybuff-blog · 5 years

Text

Six Effortless Ways to Make a Bigger Dent in Your Debt

Paying down debt can often seem daunting, insurmountable, and sometimes entirely defeating. Yet the need for Americans to get control of their debt is more pressing than ever. As of February 2019, according to the Federal Reserve, consumer debt exceeded $4 trillion for the first time ever thats not even including home mortgages. While there are many tried-and-true approaches to paying down debt, including the debt snowball methodand using a loan to consolidate high-interest debts into one (ideally) lower monthly payment, we asked personal finance and debt experts to share some of the other, smaller, daily or weekly ways to effortlessly chip away at those bills. It turns out there are a variety of tactics you can apply to your payment routine to help speed up your journey toward being debt-free. 1. Use apps that help pay down debt. There are apps for nearly everything these days. Apps that help you save money, apps that help you invest and yes, apps that were created specifically to help you with the chore of paying down debt. Robert Farrington, creator of the site The College Investor, likes Cents, an app specifically designed to help users pay off credit cards with their spare change. Cents makes monthly payments toward your debt by using what it calls the roundups from your purchases. In other words, spend $9.45 on something, and Cents will round up the purchase to $10 and put the remaining 55 cents toward debt payments. The app claims it can help erase compounding interest on your debts, saving the average user hundreds of dollars. Farrington did a test run with the app himself, and liked what he saw. When I looked into this app, a quick review of my transactions for the previous month showed that the Cents app would have directed $42 to debt, and charged another $2 for its services, he explained. That isnt a ton of money per month heading to my debt, but the cost also isnt too high. I believe someone struggling to pay down debt or who is simply looking for more painless ways to pay down debt might find the extra $2 well worth the cost. Cents is of course, just one example. Other options include ChangEd, which operates in a similar way as Cents, rounding up your spending to the nearest dollar. But in the case of ChangeEd, the money is applied to student loan debt. Tally, meanwhile, is yet another helpful app, one aimed at those with particularly high-interest credit card debt. 2. Set up direct debits to a savings account. Yaz Purnell, founder of The Wallet Moth, a lifestyle and money website that provides practical, sustainable, and frugal living advice, offers yet another option to help banish debt. One of my favorite ways to pay extra towards debts without even thinking about it is to simply set up a direct debit into a savings account thats dedicated to paying off a loan, explains Purnell. Hide, or even destroy, the debit card associated with that savings account so you can only access the money via your online banking. Once the account is established, set-up a direct debit to transfer a small amount of money to your new savings on the same day you get paid. Soon enough, you wont even miss that spare cash and youll have a nice pot of money accumulating for paying off your loans in no time, says Purnell. 3. Split your debt payments in two each month. A biweekly approach to debt payment can go a long way toward more quickly eliminating those bills, says Adele Alligood, a financial advisor with EndThrive. It was one of many measures she used to help pay off $76,000 in debt. By using this biweekly payment method, it means youll have an extra payment go towards your loans each year with no extra effort, she explains. Heres what Alligood means: Whether its a credit card, mortgage, or student loan payment, divide the monthly payment in half, and then pay that bill every other week instead of just once a month. For example, if youre paying $400 per month, split it into $200 every two weeks, said Alligood. This method is great because it requires no extra work you just change the way you make the payments. The biweekly approach to paying debts means youll make 26 half payments in a year or 13 full payments, as opposed to the standard 12 full payments made on a monthly payment plan, continued Alligood. In other words, you will have made an extra payment towards your debt each year, without even feeling the financial impact. Yet another variation on the increased payments theme, Lisa Hebert, creator of Money Minded Mom, suggests making payments every single week. There are two advantages to making weekly payments, says Hebert. One, youll end up making 52 weekly payments, which equates to an extra payment per year. Secondly, youre accruing less interest throughout each month on the outstanding balance of the loan. This reduces the total amount of interest youll pay during the life of your loan, saving you money in the long run. 4. Increase debt payments when you get a raise. Sure, it might be tempting to pocket your annual raises and live a little larger. But if you immediately put the extra income towards your loans or debts, you wont even notice the missing money, says Anna Keisler, an associate financial advisor withSG Financial. However, Keisler offers one caveat to this suggestion. If you have no emergency savings, its a good idea to split that raise in half. Put half of it into savings while putting half towards debt, she explains. When you have enough saved up, consider increasing the amount you put towards debt. 5. Transfer your debt to a lower interest rate. This tried and true method of helping to attack debt should be well known by now, but its worth repeating. If you have outstanding credit card debt, transfer it to a line of credit so youre paying a lower interest rate and putting extra money towards your overall debt, advises Jacqueline Gilchrist, creator of Mom Money Map. The interest rate for credit cards is often over 20%, whereas the interest rate for a line of credit is usually around 5%. Yet another variation on this theme is shifting your credit card balances to a zero-interest balance transfer card, so every bit of your payment is being applied to the principal. 6. Use gift cards as budgeting tools. When we overspend in our daily lives, it impacts how much money we have available to pay towards debt each month, says Ryan Junas, a personal finance coach and creator of the blog Arrest Your Debt. Often groceries and entertainment are the areas we overspend on the most, Junas explained. If you plan out your entertainment and grocery bill at the beginning of the month, you can purchase gift cards for those amounts. When you go to the store, bring only your gift cards and leave your credit cards at home. When the money runs out, you cannot overspend. This leaves more room for debt repayment at the end of the month. Whats more, you can often buy gift cards on the resale market at a discount, freeing up more cash for debt repayment. Junas suggests looking for discounted gift cards at places like Costco, Sams Club, or Raise.com. Mia Tayloris an award-winning journalist with more than two decades of experience. She has worked for some of the nations best-known news organizations, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the San Diego Union-Tribune. More byMia Taylor: https://www.thesimpledollar.com/six-effortless-ways-to-make-a-bigger-dent-in-your-debt/

0 notes

dyernews · 5 years

Text

2019 Pay with GasBuddy Review: Yes, You Can Legitimately Save Money Every Time You Fill

I don’t remember what it was like to drive to new places before I had GPS on my phone — how did I get anywhere? Similarly, I don’t know how I survived road trips before I had GasBuddy to lead me to the best gas stations along the way. Given this reliance, you’d think I would have learned about their Pay with GasBuddy feature sooner. Alas, it was only a few months ago that it was brought to my attention.

Put simply, the value proposition of Pay with GasBuddy is that you can use a special card that’s accepted at most gas stations in order to save a few cents off of every gallon of gas you buy. That sounds good — almost too good, if you think like me. However, after getting a chance to test the service out, I can report that Pay with GasBuddy really does work and could be a great feature for some drivers.

With that background, let’s take a closer look at what Pay with GasBuddy is and how it could save you money on the road.

Signing Up for Pay with GasBuddy and How it Works

The first thing you should know about Pay with GasBuddy is that it is completely free to sign-up and start using the service. All you’ll need to do is either select the Pay with GasBuddy option in the app or go to their website to begin the process. On top of basic information like your name, address, and phone number, you’ll also be asked to link a checking account. Keep in mind that the account you select will be the one that’s charged whenever you use the service.

After you sign-up, a Pay with GasBuddy card will be shipped to (again — this is all free). To the untrained eye, these look like any regular credit or debit cards except that it lacks an EMV chip or Visa/Mastercard/etc. logo. Before using your new card, you’ll also be asked to create a Driver ID number, which will essentially function as a PIN.

Once your card is activated, you’re ready to go. You’ll be able to insert your card at the pump or most stations and automatically save 10¢ per gallon on your first fill-up and 5¢ per gallon after that. Alternatively, thanks to a partnership with Sears, you can elect to earn Shop Your Way CASHBACK points instead, earning 30¢ per gallon in points for your first 60 days and 15¢ per gallon after that. These points can then be redeemed at Sears and K-Mart locations as well as online.

GasBack Offers There is another way to save using Pay with GasBuddy and that is via their GasBack offers. Similar to how Ebates or Dosh offers result in cash back, taking advantage of deals offered by multiple online retailers in the “Savings” section of the app will deliver a percentage (or flat dollar amount) of your purchase in GasBack. For example, current offers include 8% GasBack from Reebok, 3% from Hotwire, $5 from SiriusXM, as well as many others.

To earn GasBack, you’ll want to shop at the participating retailers using the links found in the GasBuddy app. Also note the “Fine Print” for each offer that will list what types of items will be eligible, how long your GasBack will take to process, and more. Once you’ve received your GasBack, you’ll be able to spend it using your Pay with GasBuddy card. Plus, these savings come in addition to the 5¢ per gallon off you’d normally receive.

Personally I have yet to try out any GasBack offers but I will say that GasBuddy does seem to have a pretty decent line-up. Unfortunately, since you’ll need to use their link for purchases, these offers would likely have to take the place of those you’d get from Ebates or others. That means GasBack is just one more thing to consider when you’re shopping for the best deals online.

Using Pay with GasBuddy

On their website, GasBuddy says that their service works at most gas stations — calling out a few where it doesn’t work while showcasing logos of a few that do. Since my local station was not explicitly listed, I was very skeptical when I went to insert my Pay with GasBuddy card for the first time. Since that time, I have noticed that stations that don’t support Pay with GasBuddy are actually noted in the app. For example, next to Sam’s Club, there’s a small icon of a card with a circle and slash through it next to the station’s address. For what it’s worth, Sam’s is one of only a handful of stations in my area that don’t accept the card.

To my surprise, after swiping my card, the pump prompted me to enter my Driver ID. Once that was done, I was good to select my fuel grade and start pumping. Admittedly, at this point, I still wasn’t 100% clear on how Pay with GasBuddy actually worked, so I printed my receipt to keep tabs on the whole process. What I soon discovered was that the price listed on that receipt is not what would end up being debited from my account. Instead — with this being my first fill up — I saved 15¢ per gallon, with the net balance deducted from my checking account (note: Pay with GasBuddy’s site says you get 10¢ per gallon off of your first fill-up, so I’m not clear on why mine was higher). It was like magic!

With my first fill-up behind me, I knew the ropes now — or so I thought. The next station also asked me for my Driver ID but then also asked for an odometer reading. Not wanting to take the time to look at the dead-on reading, I entered a nice, round number and that seemed to work just fine. Unfortunately this may have caused some issue down the literal and proverbial road (more on that later).

Finally, something I noticed when using Pay with GasBuddy is that, while some purchases showed up immediately, others took some time to reach both my GasBuddy and bank account. This wasn’t really a problem but it’s something to be aware of (lest you think you made off with a free fill-up).

The Pros and Cons of Pay with GasBuddy

First, the biggest compliment I can give Pay with GasBuddy is that, to my surprise, it was accepted at every station I tried it at. That said I should note that the service is only intended to work at the pump itself and cannot be used inside (even if it is just to pre-pay for gas). As a result, if you only want to pump a certain dollar amount, you’ll have to do it manually.

Going back to the odometer reading, I later found out that this is a feature GasBuddy is testing in order to eventually be able to offer you tips for improving your gas mileage. That’s all well and good, but the problem I ran into was that, at the station I arrived at, I entered another fake number and was told to see an attendant. This may have been because I added an extra digit (oops) but, either way, I elected to just use another card. While this was a minor inconvenience, I also discovered you can just enter “99” to opt-out of this upcoming service and proceed without issue.

Another feature that’s both a pro and a con is the upgrade to earning Shop Your Way points. At 30¢ gallon back in your first 60 days, you can quickly rack up CASHBACK points on a road trip. Even at 15¢ per gallon, it’s still a pretty good deal. The problem is that these points don’t last forever and expire a couple months after they’re earned. Therefore, if you’re not a frequent Sears or K-Mart shopper, you’ll need to make an effort to use your points on time. Plus, given the chain’s much-publicized financial woes, it’s understandable that some users might not be too interested in holding onto such currency.

When I originally reviewed Pay with GasBuddy, I noted that I was unable to find a clear way to switch back from the Shop Your Way option back to the regular 5¢ per gallon off scheme. Luckily, as some helpful readers have pointed out, the app has been updated to make this process quite simple. When in the “Savings” tab of the GasBuddy app, tap the gear icon in the upper right to access your Settings. From there, under “Account,” you’ll see a “Shop Your Way” option where you can unlink your account.

Final Thoughts on Pay with GasBuddy

Overall, I was really surprised and impressed with the Pay with GasBuddy product. After all, it’s essentially giving users free money. Of course the big disadvantage for people like me is that I’d be missing out on credit card rewards by using this service instead. With one of my cards granting me 4% back on gas, that likely bests the 5¢ off GasBuddy offers after the initial fill-up. Again, the Sears Shop Your Way figure would actually exceed the credit card cash back offer, but I’d also have to redeem my points sooner rather than later.

With all that said, if you don’t have a credit card that puts a premium on gas, Pay with GasBuddy could be a great option for saving at the pump. Given its wide acceptance, ease of use, and now two reward options, I’ll be taking my Pay with GasBuddy card along with me for many future road trips.

The post 2019 Pay with GasBuddy Review: Yes, You Can Legitimately Save Money Every Time You Fill appeared first on Dyer News.

0 notes

lilac-milk-moon · 5 years

Text

5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use the Acorns Investing Program

Is the Acorns app a good way to invest?

Note: in this article, I mention several investment brokerages by name. I am not being compensated to mention them. My purpose for semiretireplan.com is to help connect you to the resources that will best serve you.

Have you seen a real-life acorn? They’re cute, in a way. But if you’ve ever been hit by an acorn falling from a tree, you know they can sting!

The Acorns investing program is much the same.

What is the Acorns app?

As you’ve likely heard, Acorns is an app and website that invests extra change from your checking account transactions. When you make purchases, it “rounds up” to the next even dollar amount and adds the difference to your Acorns account once it totals $5. The popular system (with over 3 million users) has garnered praise from the media as a way to engage millennials to help them start investing.

I myself am a millennial, so I feel it’s appropriate to give this reality check.

The Acorns website and app are sleek and user-friendly, and it’s a fun concept. When you break down the details, though, the program just doesn’t make sense for users, financially.

For any investing, It’s always best to first consider your goals before choosing an account type. Is this money for a specific purpose? How much time will pass before you need to access it? Should you expose the money to risk? Will the investment vehicle incur taxes?

Ultimately, Acorns does not account for what your goals are. Even if you do have a clearly-defined purpose for your money, there are more affordable options to help you meet your goals.

1. The standard Acorns account isn’t appropriate for long-term investing

Acorns Core accounts are taxable brokerage accounts. If you are investing for a long-term goal like your young child’s college expenses or your retirement, there are better-suited account types available.

For college savings, you should consider a 529 plan or Education Savings Account. You could even use a Roth IRA — your contributions can be withdrawn early without penalty, if needed. These three accounts will all give you tax advantages and efficiencies that a taxable brokerage account will not.

For retirement savings (even for early or semi-retirement), employer-sponsored plans, IRA plans, or HSAs will be much more tax efficient.

Acorns does offer an Acorns Later IRA account option, but it comes at an extra cost ($2 or $3 fee per month, depending on if you opt for an Acorns Spend checking account too). That cost may not seem huge, but it’s unnecessary when other IRA providers have no monthly subscription costs. Furthermore, the best brokerages offer hundreds or thousands of investment choices within the IRA plan, while Acorns only offers 5 pre-set portfolio choices. Vanguard, Schwab, and Fidelity are solid, low-cost brokerage options to use instead.

2. The standard Acorns account isn’t appropriate for short-term investing

In the long-run, the stock market tends to rise (though of course past performance is no guarantee of future results). For example, the U.S. stock market has never lost money over any 20 year period. However, along the way, there is a lot of volatility. For that reason, I and others do not recommend investing in the stock market if your money will be needed in the short-term.

Personally, I would not invest money unless I was planning not to need the money for 7 years or longer. I’ve seen other financial minds recommend 5 or 10 years as their rule of thumb.

Worse still, if you may need to withdraw your money for an emergency, it will take 3-6 business days for your withdrawal to fully process.

If you will need to access your money in the next 5 years, I recommend that you invest it in a high-interest savings account instead.

I also recommend keeping 3-6 months of expenses in a readily-accessible “emergency fund” savings account, so that you do not need to draw down on your investments in the event of a surprise expense.

3. The subscription fee is killing your returns

In 2014, the average debit card holder used it for 21.2 transactions per month. It’s a bit of a challenge to find detailed, recent statistics on debit and credit card transactions, because the major card companies tend to report sales volume instead of transactions numbers. So, to give Acorns a fighting chance, let’s assume the average person is making 40 transactions per month.

If on average the “round up” from each transaction is $0.50, that would be $20 invested in Acorns each month.

The $1 per month base plan subscription fee for Acorns, then, is costing you 5% of your monthly contribution. Any other brokerage that charged you 5% per month on your contributions would be written off as a scam.

4. (You guessed it) the standard Acorns account isn’t the best choice for medium-term investing

We said before that a taxable brokerage account likely isn’t the best choice for long-term investing, and it’s too volatile for short-term investing. So, you might be tempted to think Acorns could be a good choice for medium-term goals. In a way, that is the best possible use case for Acorns, but it’s still not the best option for users with this time period in mind.

Consider the impact of the $1 per month fee over 15 years, compared to an account where you are not charged a subscription fee. Many low-cost brokerages do not charge subscription fees or transaction fees on their own ETFs (my brokerage account, IRA, and Roth IRA are with Schwab, so I know first-hand that they do not charge commissions on over 250 Schwab ETFs.).

Monthly investment $19 ($20 – $1 Acorns fee) $20 (no monthly fee) Annual growth rate 9% 9% Time period 15 years 15 years Future value $7,189.71 $7,568.12

In this scenario, the $1 monthly fee is lowering your future account value by $378.41.

5. False sense of accomplishing your financial goals

To me, the most dangerous effect from the media praise of Acorns is that it makes subscribers feel like they are doing something big for their future. Most of the positive coverage focuses on how it is inspiring young people to invest for the first time.

Your savings rate should be based on your specific plans for the future, so I don’t want to say there’s one number that is “right.” However, most people should be saving 10-15% of their income if they’d like to retire at a traditional age. For those of us pursuing semi-retirement, 20% or more will move the needle.

$19 per month is fine if you’re just getting started, but is not a long-term solution.

Just for fun

Honestly, Acorns is a fine product if you would like to use it for entertainment on top of already meeting your other financial goals.

I do want to caution you, though — other low-cost savings vehicles are likely more appropriate to help you meet your goals.

Do you use Acorns? How would you describe your experience and results with the program?

The post 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use the Acorns Investing Program appeared first on Semi-Retire Plan.

from Semi-Retire Plan https://ift.tt/319BQaj via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Semi-Retire Plan

0 notes

ourmrmel · 5 years

Text

Mel Feller Best Apps That Help You Earn Money

We all have smartphones, and almost everything we do with them necessitates using an app. Would it not it be great if you could make some extra money just for using your phone? Well, you can. You are not going to get rich by downloading mobile apps that pay you, but you can use these to earn a passive income every month. Moreover, you have to agree that something is better than nothing is!

Considering some of these apps require you to do almost nothing, just watch videos or participate in paid surveys, it does not seem like a bad deal to make a few extra dollars. In addition, they are free from the app store for iPhone or android. Therefore, to get you started, here are some of our favorite moneymaking apps:

Earn Money While You Watch TV

Certainly, surveys are not my favorite way to make money, but if you are just relaxing on the couch or guarding your eyes while being forced to watch “I love Lucy reruns”, why not click a couple buttons and earn a few bucks?

There is a bunch of paid survey sites out there, but two of the best I have found are Swagbucks and MyPoints. Companies rated A by the Better Business Bureau run both of these sites. On MyPoints, you’ll earn a $5 bonus when you complete your first five surveys.

Get Free Virtual Scratch-off Tickets

There is something that is satisfying about those gas station scratch-off tickets, but it is better to avoid them because, well, that is not making money, that may be losing money.

Instead, try scratching free using an app called Lucktastic. Each day, it releases a new assortment of digital scratch-off tickets. Lucktastic says instant wins range from $1 to $10,000. You can also earn tokens, enter contests and play games. The app is underwritten by advertising, which allows it to keep the payouts high and the games free.

Earn Cash Every Time You Shop and a $10 Bonus

I know it sounds strange, but Ibotta will pay you cash for taking pictures of your grocery store receipts.

Here is how it works:

Before heading to the store, search for items on your shopping list within the Ibotta app. When you get home, snap a photo of your receipt and scan the items’ barcodes. Ibotta is free to download. Moreover, you will get a $10 sign-up bonus after uploading your first receipt.

Some cash-back opportunities I have seen include:

25 cents back for any item.

25 cents back on strawberries.

50 cents back on frozen fruit snacks.

$1 back on a box of tea.

$5 back on a case of Shiner Bock beer.

Notice a lot of those are not tied to a brand just shop for the staples on your list and earn cash back!

Let This App Get You Lower Prices

It turns out deleting your emails could be costing you serious money. Do you want to know more? One of my secret weapons is called Paribus, a tool that gets you money back for your online purchases. It is free to sign up, and once you do, it will scan your email archives for any receipts. If it discovers you have purchased something from one of its monitored retailers, it will track the item’s price and help you get a refund anytime there is a price drop.

Build Your Savings Without Trying

Saving money is tough. So what if you could do it in a way where you would not even notice? Digit makes that possible.

This innovative app automates saving for you. Simply link it to your checking account, and its algorithms will determine small (and safe!) amounts of money to withdraw into a separate, FDIC-insured savings account.

Please Note: If you need that money sooner than expected, you will always have access to it within one business day. Digit is free to use for the first 30 days, then it’s $2.99 per month afterward.

Invest Your Pocket Change -- and Get $5

You can start small and stack up change over time with its “round-up” feature. That means if you spend $10.23 at the grocery store, 77 cents is automatically dropped into your Acorns account. Then, the app does the complete investing thing for you.

The idea is you will not miss the digital pocket change, and the automatic savings stack up faster than you would think. At that rate, you could set aside $1,000 in about two and a half years without trying.

The app is $1 a month for balances under $5,000, and you will get a $5 bonus when you sign up.

Download This App

A number of companies will actually pay you for downloading apps on your smartphone or computer this is a great way to boost your passive income!

One I love is called MobileXpression. After you have installed this app on your smartphone for one week, you get to play an instant rewards game for a prize everyone wins something. I have seen users win a $25 Amazon gift card, but some of the other prizes include iPads and Samsung TVs.

The app collects data and helps companies better understand web and mobile usage such as what times of day people browse, how long they stay on websites and use apps, and what types of sites and apps are popular or which ones are not.

Play the Slots

Are you more of the “sit at home and play video games” type of person but you’re making yourself read this because you’re determined to get this rather fun game thing down? The folks who created Long Game have you covered with a game that is fun and helps you achieve your financial goals.

As you save and accomplish missions, you will earn coins to play mini games for cash prizes! I am talking the classics, like slot machines, scratch-offs and spin-to-win wheels.

Get Paid for the Things You Were Going to Buy Already

Let us say that you have a need and now you have got a shopping trip planned already. If you have the Shopkick app downloaded, it will pay you in “kicks” just for walking into certain stores including Walmart, Target, TJMaxx and more. You can redeem them for gift cards to a number of retailers, including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Sephora and Best Buy.

It pays you even more “kicks” for photos of receipts that include qualifying items you purchased in-store with a connected credit or debit card. You can also earn kicks for online purchases. You do not have to do anything; your linked cards will automatically apply your kicks.

Get Rewarded for Paying Your Bills on Time

Your parents probably gave you an allowance for washing the dishes and sweeping the floor when you were a kid. Now all you get for doing it is a kitchen that is clean for, like, 4 minutes. As an adult, you do not typically get rewards for doing things that are expected of you until now.

This invention rather rules them all: MoneyLion, a free all-in-one app for managing your personal finances. MoneyLion offers rewards to help you develop healthy financial habits and will literally pay you for logging onto the app.

You can earn points in the rewards program by paying bills on time, connecting your bank account or downloading the mobile app. You can redeem those points for gift cards to retailers like Amazon, Apple and Walmart. If credit cards are not your thing, MoneyLion is like having a rewards credit card without the temptation to overspend.

The app also connects with your entire bank, credit card, student loan and other financial accounts. Based on your income and spending patterns, it offers personalized advice to help you save money, reduce your debt and improve your credit.

Find out Where You are Wasting Money

We all sign up for stuff. Sometimes it is easier to put subscriptions on a recurring payment and forget about it but that just leaves us in depression once we are not using things and we have kept making payments for an extended period.

If you cannot keep track of them all, check out an app called Trim. Once you sign up and connect your bank account and phone number, it analyzes your transaction history for recurring payments. When it finds one, the app sends you a text and cancels any subscriptions you do not want to keep. That is money back in your pocket every month!

Grow Your Money

Where you stash your money is almost as important as how much you have. Maybe in a box? It is not earning you any interest in there. In a checking account? Probably not doing much for you there, either. Even if you keep it in a high-interest savings account, you are probably only earning around 0.05% on your balance.

It is frustrating, for sure so you have to think outside your bank.

Worthy is a free app that invests your money in bonds and pays out a fixed 5% annual interest rate — around 100 times more than what you’d get from the bank. The bonds act like a savings account — you can deposit or withdraw money at any time. Say you have $300 in your Worthy account. You just passively banked $15 this year. You can start investing with as little as $10. Moreover, that is still an extra 50 cents this year.

Share Your Amazon Purchase History

This is such an easy, passive way to rake in an extra $36 a year. ShopTracker, one of the leading public opinion research companies, wants you to share your Amazon purchase history. Moreover, you will be paid for every month you share!

When you sign up for ShopTracker, it keeps your private information, well, private. All it wants to see is your order information. To earn your first gift card today:

Sign up, and download the ShopTracker app on your Windows computer and Apple or Android phone. It takes about two minutes. You will need to answer a few questions about your Amazon use to qualify.

Open the app and log in to your Amazon account to automatically share your purchase history. You will receive your Visa e-gift card code for $3 via email within 48 hours.

Take a couple of minutes to share your purchase history to earn another $3 each month.

I hope you take the time to utilize some of these great apps and have fun making some extra cash!

Mel Feller – Personal Development, Business, Execute, Internet and Real Estate Investments Coach/Mentor and Business Owner

Mel Feller was a senior staffer for over 5 years with both United States Senator Jake Garn and The Senate Banking and Finance Committee.

Mel Feller is a speaker at entrepreneurial forums training business professionals on marketing strategies and the “Secrets of Online Marketing”. He provides consulting services on all aspects of business including organizational performance, sales and marketing strategies, employee productivity and retention, successful solution implementation, technology leverage and customer service in all business and fields.

Mel Feller's areas of technology expertise include emails and social media, solution development discipline and methodology, business process leads and project management.

Mel Feller has twenty-five years’ experience with companies, nonprofits and individuals in the research and writing of both government and private grants.

In addition to his regular consulting and management responsibilities, Mel Feller was published in the Top 100 Mentors; he has published two book on "Creative Real Estate Financing" and “Multiple Secrets to Success”, and presented numerous executive lectures for Fortune 500 corporations on “leadership and business practices”.

Visit him at www.melfeller.com and www.melfellersuccessstories.com

Mel Feller’s dynamic presence, instinctive strategic vision, and creative thinking produce effective, sustainable bottom-line results for his clients. His “Can Do” attitude generates confidence in his executive coaching clients and strategic consulting corporate clients. Throughout Mel Feller’s career, he has increased the profitability of nearly every organization with which he has worked.

Mel Feller has a unique ability to relate to his clients because he came from The United States Senate, where Mel was the Chief of Staff for a United States Senator and was always meeting with prominent business people or politicians. His main love was dealing with constituents that were the grass root voters! Since founding Coaching For Success 360 In 1989, he has effectively translated that experience into results for his clients. He focuses on separating daily distractions from the real issues in order to put the executive and/or business on the right path to grow and prosper. Results are immediate, growth sustainable, and profitability long-term.

Dozens of Mel Feller’s clients have been on Inc.’s 500/5000 list and many have been named as a “Best Places To Work.

Using Mel Feller’s intuitive, systematic approach, and our proven strategic and tactical tools, we help you plan for profit.

Mel Feller believes that what gets measured is improved. Therefore, he is continually developing processes and systems that allow you to easily measure, manage and maintain a highly profitable business.

Mel Feller is ready to help you increase your sales, trim and manage your operating costs and see your profits soar and/or leverage your time for Business or Real Estate!

“Truth telling, honesty, and candor: I loved you Mel Feller! You have so much energy and knowledge! I truly hope I get another opportunity to be coached by you. I see myself a little clearer now, and it’s not so bad.”

Lisa Mathews

“Mel Feller you added more value than we can possibly see right now. Mel Feller, you are warm, inviting, and accommodating. Thank you for coming alongside us in this transition!”

Vanessa Cavanaugh

“Mel Feller the best education session that we have attended in many years! Thank you so much — I am very excited to put everything you have taught us into practice!”

Michael Randolph

“Mr. Mel Feller, Thank you, thank you, thank you for giving a marvelous keynote at our Symposium! While we have not yet collected the official feedback, the unofficial feedback was that You Were a Hit! I heard nothing but compliments regarding your presentations. Thank you for making such a positive impact on our attendees! ”

Lyle Cunningham VP

"Mel Feller uses his humor, compassion, and direct nature to help bring out the best in me. Mel Feller is committed to helping me live...I mean, really live, life to its fullest."

Jose Rodriguez

Mel Feller Links

https://www.instagram.com/mel.feller

https://ourmrmel.tumblr.com/

https://www.pinterest.com/cfs360/

https://twitter.com/melfeller/following

https://wordpress.com/page/melfellerinternetbusinessinnovations.wordpress.com

https://dribbble.com/melfeller

https://biggerpockets.com/forums/79/topics/49008-larry-goins-bootcamp

https://txbusinessdb.com/p/mel-feller

https://xindex.com/c/12031660488/mel-feller-financial-services-group-inc

https://buzzfile.com/business/Coaching-For-Success-940-569-9260

https://melfellerrealestateinnovations.wordpress.com

https://myspace.com/mfcfs360

https://goodreads.com/user/show/86266194-mel-feller

https://mfcfs.contently.com

https://alignable.com/wichita-falls-tx/coaching-for-success-360

https://quora.com/profile/Mel-Feller

https://about.me/melfeller

https://independent.academia.edu/MelFeller

https://medium.com/@mfcfs360

https://melfellerentrepreneurialideas.wordpress.com

https://about.me/melfeller

https://thecoachingoffice.com

https://quora.com/profile/Mel-Feller

https://linkedin.com/pulse/reflections-journaling-mel-feller-mel-feller

https://creonline.com/finally-my-first-deal

https://etrainingguide.com

https://reitips.com/open-letter

https://thecoachingoffice.com/testimonials.html

https://fortunebuilders.com/student-success-old/testimonials/page/9

https://agrandpaslove.blogspot.com

https://plus.google.com/u/0

https://youtube.com/channel/UCk_zDXJgadnWwmab0PhaIkQ/videos

https://linkedin.com/in/mel-feller

https://challengesinlife.com

https://melfellersuccessstories.com

https://melfeller.com

#making money #mel feller #melfeller

0 notes

darcyfarber · 5 years

Text

How This App Allows You to Build Wealth With Your Spare Change

A better solution is Acorns.

Acorns is an app that takes your spare change and doesn’t just set it aside for you, but rather invests it for you using a method called “micro-investing.”

Micro-Investing

Instead of spending it on a double latte or a drive-thru supper because “you found five bucks,” what if you could put your loose change into a digital money jar that earns interest?

There are many micro-investing platforms to choose from, but this post is going to focus on one of our favorite and one of the most widely-known platforms; Acorns.

In this Acorns app review, you’ll find out everything you ever wanted to know about it and how you can build a small nest egg with minimal effort.

What is Acorns?

The best way to describe Acorns is it’s an online money jar that also invests your spare change.

Acorns is a micro-investing app that collects your spare change in three different ways:

Rounding up your debit and credit card purchases,

Recurring daily, weekly, or monthly investments (optional)

Cash back rewards when you shop online at select retailers

How to Access Acorns

You can download the Acorns app from any Android or Apple mobile device. Acorns can also be accessed online via their desktop platform here.

Does Acorns Replace Your Savings Account?

No!!

You still need to keep an emergency fund and other savings you can’t afford to lose inside an FDIC-insured bank account.

Before you begin investing with Acorns, make sure you set aside $1,000 into an emergency fund to cover life’s unexpected expenses.

Who Can Join Acorns?

You must meet the three requirements to join Acorns:

At least 18 years old

Be a resident of the USA

Own an active checking account

Why Join Acorns?

The #1 reason to join Acorns is that you save money on a regular basis and can earn more interest than your bank account.

You will benefit most from Acorns if you’re one of the following:

Do not currently invest or save money for the future

Want to save money every time you spend money

Want a 100% “hands-off” investing app

Using Acorns can be a win-win proposition to build wealth because:

Develop the habit of saving and investing money each month

Investments usually earn more interest than your checking account

Is Acorns Free?

Acorns is free for college students with a dot.edu email address for up to four years.

While you might initially balk at paying $12 a year to have an app invest your loose change, take a second to look at it from a different perspective.

Also, don’t forget your investments earn regular dividends that can offset or exceed the monthly fee as well.

Paying one buck a month can be well worth the additional peace of mind you’ll receive by automating your savings process with minimal effort.

How to Fund Your Acorns Account

There are three different ways to fund your Acorns account:

Round-ups

Recurring investments

Found Money shopping rewards

You can participate in one, two, or all three of these funding streams. So decide which ones work best for you and start saving.

Round-Up Investing

Here’s how Acorns’ round-up investing feature works:

Link your credit or debit cards to your Acorns account

Acorns monitors your card spending and “rounds-up” each purchase to the next dollar

Your round-up balance is invested each time it reaches $5 and withdraws the balance from your checking account

Assuming you’re like the average American and use your debit card 23 times a month, Acorns can easily invest $5 a month assuming the average round-up is 25 cents per transaction.

Acorns Round-Up Multiplier

If you choose to use the round-up multiplier, you do have a total of three options:

2x multiplier

3x multiplier

10x multiplier

Acorns Won’t Withdraw Money Until Round-Ups Reach $5

Even if it takes you two months to reach $5 in round-ups, Acorns won’t withdraw any money from your checking account until your current round-up balance reaches the $5 minimum.

If you schedule a recurring investment, that contribution will be separate from your round-ups balance and you will still have to reach the $5 round-ups minimum before they can be invested.

Recurring Investments

Automate Weekly and Monthly Investments

One-Time Investments

You might decide to make a one-time investment to fund your account during the signup process. Five dollars gets you started and the money will deposit within three business days.

Found Money

Get Business Partners to Invest in You

Any rewards you earn from Found Money are in addition to your spending round-ups. To get extra cash rewards to invest, you need to follow these steps:

Click “Found Money” button in your Acorns account

Choose the online merchant you want to shop at

Click the “Shop Now” button to open a unique Acorns shopping session

Pay for a purchase with your linked credit or debit card

Retailer invests a designated portion of the purchase amount

Each merchant offers a different cash back rate but you can expect to have between 2% and 10% of the purchase amount invested in your Acorns account.

Acorns is continually adding more partners to the Found Money portfolio so you have more opportunities to invest while shopping online. Some of the notable partners right now include:

Airbnb

American Eagle

Lyft

Jet.com

Stitch Fixed

Walmart

How Long Does It Take To Receive the Found Money Rewards?

Although Acorns usually sends a confirmation email within 24 hours of your purchase with your Found Money amount, the actual investment won’t be made until 60 to 120 days later.

How Does Acorns Invest Your Money?

Investing your spare change is what sets Acorns apart from other micro-saving apps.

Acorns is a great way to invest in the market if you’re a beginner investor or don’t have the time to be a DIY investor.

How Acorns Determines Your Investment Portfolio

What Does Acorns Invest In?

Acorns currently invests in the following asset classes and ETFs:

Corporate Bonds: iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond (LQD)

Government Bonds: iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond (SHY)

Small Company Stocks: Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund ETF (VB)

Real Estate: Vanguard REIT Index Fund ETF (VNQ)

Large Company Stocks: Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF (VOO)

Emerging Markets: Vanguard Emerging Markets Stocks ETF (VWO)

International Large Company Stocks: Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA)

The Five Different Acorns Investment Portfolios

Conservative

The most risk-averse portfolio is the Conservative portfolio with the following asset allocation.

Large Company Stocks: 12%

Small Company Stocks: 2%

Real Estate Stocks: 2%

Government Bonds: 40%

Corporate Bonds: 40%

International Large Company Stocks: 4%

Moderately Conservative

Large Company Stocks: 24%

Small Company Stocks: 4%

Real Estate Stocks: 4%

Government Bonds: 30%

Corporate Bonds: 30%

International Large Company Stocks: 8%

Moderate

Large Company Stocks: 29%

Small Company Stocks: 10%

Emerging Market Stocks: 3%

Real Estate Stocks: 6%

Government Bonds: 20%

Corporate Bonds: 20%

International Large Company Stocks: 12%

Moderately Aggressive

Large Company Stocks: 38%

Small Company Stocks: 14%

Emerging Market Stocks: 4%

Real Estate Stocks: 8%

Government Bonds: 10%

Corporate Bonds: 10%

International Large Company Stocks: 16%

Aggressive

Large Company Stocks: 40%

Small Company Stocks: 20%

Emerging Market Stocks: 10%

Real Estate Stocks: 10%

International Large Company Stocks: 20%

Can You Change Your Acorns Investment Allocation?

If you want to be more cautious or aggressive than your current Acorns portfolio choice, you can change your portfolio allocation at any time for free!

To hedge against this risk, you can switch to the Conservative or Moderately Conservative portfolio allocation that holds at least 60% bonds which are historically more stable than stocks.

Once you decide to invest more aggressively, you can select a more aggressive portfolio even if it’s two days from now.

To change your investment portfolio, click on the “Profile” tab then “Portfolio.” The different portfolio choices from left to right with an incrementally more aggressive investing strategy.

How Do You Withdraw Acorns Investments?

Eventually, you’ll need to withdraw some of your Acorns investments when you accomplish your investing goals.

Withdrawing your Acorns investments is as easy as contributing money.

Acorns doesn’t mail paper checks.

How Long Does it Take To Receive an Acorns Withdrawal?

If you sell your investments on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are the two-day settlement period, and you can expect to receive your funds as soon as Thursday.

Are Acorns Investments Taxable?

What is Acorns Later?

Your investments will grow tax-deferred meaning you won’t pay any tax now, but instead on the withdrawal value in retirement.

Do You Need to Be an Existing Acorns Member to Join Acorns Later?

At this moment, yes, you need to be an existing Acorns members with a taxable, non-retirement to fund an Acorns Later IRA.

Once you open an Acorns Later account, you must make a minimum investment of $5 to get started; just like your regular Acorns account.

Is Acorns or Acorns Later Better?

Other Things You Didn’t Know About Acorns

Here are a few other things you might not know about the Acorns app that help make saving and investing fun!

Track Your Past, Present, and Potential Investing Progress

Once you’re logged into your Acorns account, you can view your investing progress so far and your potential future progress based on your age and investing rate.

Every time you log into Acorns, the first thing you’ll see is your current account balance. Directly above your current balance, you’ll see three buttons: Past, Present, Potential.

These three buttons are the secret sauce to navigating the Acorns dashboard like a boss.

Past

You can also track your itemized earning history for your round-ups, recurring investments, and referral bonuses.

Present

This screen also shows your recent earning history so you can easily see if the purchase you made yesterday has been credited to your Acorns round-ups balance yet.

Potential

Any investing app worth their salt includes a projected investment calculator. When you first click the “Potential” button, you will see your projected account balance based on your age.

The dotted line is the projected balance at your current investment rate

The solid line is your total projected balance including interest

Refer Your Friends and Get $5

Integrate Acorns with Your Mint.com Account

If you use the free online budgeting app Mint, you can link your Acorns account to track your investing progress with your monthly budget.

Acorns Pros

It only takes $5 to get started

Five different portfolios with instant diversification

Three ways to automate your investing

Round-ups let you invest each time you shop

Automatic portfolio rebalancing

Mobile app is easy-to-use

Acorns Cons

Monthly feed erode cumulative investment returns

Investments can lose value during stock market corrections

Cannot invest in individual stocks or ETFs outside the Acorns portfolio

Alternatives to Acorns

Maybe you don’t think Acorns is a good fit for you. No worries.

These three micro-investing apps might be a better fit for your saving and investing habits.

Only one of these alternatives features round-up investing and none of them offer online shopping cash back rewards.

Stash

Betterment

Betterment also adheres to the Modern Portfolio Theory and your money will be invested in a basket of iShares and Vanguard stock and bond ETFs based on your risk tolerance.

This can be your best Acorns alternative if you can live without round-up investing and still prefer to have the investing app handle the day-to-day portfolio management decisions.

And, Betterment can also double as your primary brokerage account too which means you can keep all of your investments with Betterment until retirement if you prefer automated, index investing.

M1 Finance

M1 Finance requires an initial $100 investment and you can only make one-time or recurring monthly investments. After your account is funded, the minimum investment is $1.

Summary

Join Acorns Today

How This App Allows You to Build Wealth With Your Spare Change published first on https://mysingaporepools.weebly.com/

0 notes

kennethherrerablog · 5 years

Text

These 8 Apps Will Help You Save Money — No Matter How Tight Your Budget

Saving money is oftentimes filed under personal finance 101.

It’s easy, they say. You’ve just got to do it! Stay focused! Quell spending temptations!

Honestly, that’s just not the case.

In the United States, only 15% of us can come up with $2,000, according to a Penny Hoarder analysis of Federal Reserve survey data.

If saving money were that easy, that percentage would be a lot higher.

But here’s the thing: There are plenty of money-saving tools out there that’ll make the task way easier. Some of them will even help you grow your stash with that sweet, sweet interest.

We Reviewed ’Em: The 8 Best Money-Saving Apps of 2019

There are so many personal finance apps, which is great, but it can quickly become overwhelming. To help you decide what’s best for you and your financial goals, we rounded up our favorite savings apps (in no particular order).

1. Aspiration: A Free Account With Built-In Savings

A simple way to save money is to open an account that offers a side-by-side spending account and a savings account, like the online-only Aspiration Spend & Save account.

When you open an account, you’ll receive a cash-back debit card that’ll get you 0.5% cash back on all purchases. You’ll also gain access to a high-yield savings account, which will get you 2.00% APY — as long as you deposit $1 a month.

If you’re new to this whole “saving money” thing, it might take some time to strike the right balance between your spending and savings accounts, but Aspiration makes it super easy to shuffle money back and forth.

Best for those looking to open a new, fee-free account and want to earn some extra money with cash back and interest. You only need $10 to open an account.

Cost: Free

Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android.

Find out more in our Aspiration review.

2. Digit: A Mindless Way to Hit Your Savings Goals

If you have trouble determining just how much money you can afford to put away each month, turn to Digit, an innovative mobile app that’ll do the work for you.

First, download the Digit app, and connect your bank account. (This is where the app will pull money from to go into savings.)

Then set up your savings goals. For example, you can set a goal of $2,000 for a rainy day fund and then $500 for a weekend getaway.

Now, Digit will use its smart algorithms to analyze your income and spending habits to determine just how much you can afford to save. It’ll automatically pull small amounts of money (it promises no overdrafts!) into its FDIC-insured Digit account.

It’ll even send you real-time daily notifications, so your balance is never a surprise. You can pause or tap into your savings at any time — it’ll take one business day for the funds to roll back into your checking account.

Best for those who have a hard time figuring out how much they can afford to save and want to lean on automatic savings.

Cost: Free for the first 30 days, then a monthly fee of $2.99

Bonus: Penny Hoarders will get an extra $5 just for signing up. Additionally, you’ll receive a 1% savings bonus on your average daily balance every three months.

Available via Apple iOS and Android.

Read how one Penny Hoarder mindlessly saved $4,300 in our Digit review.

3. Acorns: A Virtual Piggy Bank Turned Investment Account

If you want to dip your big toe into investing while also stockpiling money, Acorns is a micro-investing mobile app that allows just that.

Download the app, then link up your checking accounts, credit cards and/or debit cards — go wild. (This is all protected, by the way, and your investment portfolio is insured for up to $500,000.)

Now, turn on its round-up feature, and Acorns will act like a virtual piggy bank, rounding up your transactions to the nearest dollar and depositing the spare change into your Acorns account. Then it does all the heavy lifting for you.

You can even earn cash back through Acorns. For example, if you’ve wanted to sign up for Blue Apron, it’ll give you $30 to invest. Or if you book your next Airbnb through the app, you’ll snag 1.8% cash back to go toward your investments.

Best for those who are interested in investing their savings and are willing to take a little risk.

Cost: $1 a month for account balances under $1 million

Bonus: Pocket $5 when you sign up.

Available via Apple iOS and Android.

Check out our Acorns review, and read how Penny Hoarder Dana Sitar was able to save at a rate of $420 a year.

4. Qapital: A Fun (Almost Addicting) Way to Save Money

If you want to, you know, spice things up while saving, look into the Qapital app.

I initially tried Qapital out back in 2016, when I’d just secured my first full-time job and was having a hard time putting any money away. It helped me sneak away $700 in about five months.

When you download the Qapital app, you’ll link up your bank account and set savings goals. Under each goal, you’ll set rules. This is where it gets fun.

For example, if you’re really excited about saving for your trip to the Bahamas, set Qapital to transfer $5 into your Qapital account each time you hit your daily step goal. Or maybe you’re always stopping by Starbucks. Tell Qapital to funnel $1 into your savings each time you go.

(Since I used Qapital, it’s evolved to offer banking and investment services, too, but I’m still keen on its core: saving.)

Best for those who like a good challenge and want turn goal-setting into a game.

Cost: $3 a month for the basic version after a 30-day free trial.

Available via iOS and Android.

5. Twine: A Simple Way for Couples to Band Together to Hit Mutual Goals

If you’re looking for a way to save toward a joint goal with your better half, you’ll want to use the Twine app.

Say you and your honey want to save for a long weekend in the Bahamas. Or maybe you’re looking to buy a home in a few years and want to save for a down payment. Whatever it is, Twine allows you both to work toward that goal.

The app offers two options: You two can save your money in a free joint account with a 1.05% variable interest rate, or you two can invest your money and potentially earn some interest. (That option costs 25 cents per $500 invested.)

To get started, you and your partner will each create Twine accounts, and link your individual bank accounts — this is how you’ll fund your savings. Then, set your goal (vacation, down payment, emergency fund, you name it) and select your monthly deposit amount.

Then, watch your savings grow together.

Best for those who want to make saving money a joint affair.

Cost: Free for saving.

Bonus: Pocket $5 when you sign up.

Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android.

6. Varo: A Savings Account That Offers Above Average APY

If you’ve got your savings strategy down pat but need a safe place to stash your money, look into an iOS banking app called Varo Money.

Here’s our favorite part: Pair your Varo Bank Account with a Varo Savings Account where you’ll earn 2.12%* Annual Percentage Yield (APY) with the opportunity to earn up to 2.80% APY on up to $50,000 in savings. That’s 31 times — repeat, 31 times — the average savings account, based on a 0.09% average reported by the FDIC.

To qualify for the 2.80% rate, you’ll need to have payroll or government direct deposits of $1,000 or more and authorize at least five purchases with your Varo debit card each month.

Varo goes easy on the fees, too. As long as you use one of the more than 55,000 Allpoint® ATMs in its affiliated network across the world, you won’t pay ATM fees.

Additionally, the minimum balance to open the account is just a penny; you’ll pay no monthly service fees, no minimum balance fees, no foreign transaction fees and no cash replacement fees. You’ll just pay any fees charged by out-of-network ATMs and cash deposit fees if you deposit cash in-store through the Green Dot® Network.

Best for those who need a separate, hands-off account to stow their money and to take advantage of compound interest.

Cost: Free

Available via Apple iOS.

*Varo disclosure: APY is accurate as of January 29, 2019. This rate is variable and may change. No minimum balance required to open account. Balance in savings must be at least $0.01 to earn interest. Deposits are FDIC insured to at least $250,000 through The Bancorp Bank; Member FDIC.

7. Stash: A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Investing App

If you’re interested in investing your savings, all you need is your phone, an app called Stash and $5 to start.

This app offers all the tools you need to turn investing into a totally passive activity.

You can opt to round-up your purchases and invest the spare change, set Stash to withdraw money on a set schedule or rely on its Smart-Stash feature, which will analyze your income and expenses to determine how much you can afford to invest.

Stash your money into more than 150 ETFs and individual stocks. Because these are micro-investments, you don’t have to invest a ton of money to get started.

Best for those who want to automate their savings stash — then invest it.

Cost: $1 a month for accounts with balances under $5,000; balances of $5,000 or more cost 0.25% a year*

Bonus: The Penny Hoarder has teamed up with Stash to give you a $5 sign-up bonus after you make your first investment.

Available via Apple iOS and Android.

Get more information in our comprehensive Stash app review.

*Clients may incur ancillary fees, charged by Stash, its custodian or both, that are not included in the monthly Wrap-Fee.

8. Chime: A Bank That’ll Do All The Hard Work For You

If you’re looking to combine a number of options on this list into one easy-to-use app, turn to Chime.

When you sign up for Chime, you’ll gain access to an online checking and savings account. Because they’re connected, it’s easy to transfer money back and forth.

But more than that: Whenever you make a transaction with your Chime debit card, it’ll round up your purchase automatically and dump the change into your savings. You can schedule automatic transfers into your savings account, too.

It takes all of about five minutes to open your Chime account.

Best for those who are sick of downloading new apps and simply want their financial institution to take care of the whole saving thing for them.

Cost: Free

Available via Apple iOS and Android.

We wrote even more about Chime’s saving options in our review.

Need More Help? Find Your Perfect Budgeting App

If you’re still struggling to save money, you might need to go back to the basics with a budgeting app. By setting up a budget and tracking your expenses, you’ll be able to find exactly where you’re overdoing it and how you can better achieve your financial goals.

One we suggest starting with is Clarity Money*, a free app that helps you see, organize and take control of your finances.

The way it works is simple. You just download the app, connect your existing accounts, and get ready to learn more about where your money’s disappearing to… and how to keep more of it.

Clarity Money analyzes and uses your spending history to provide budgetary insights. It’ll show you exactly how much you spend in different categories, like bars and restaurants, as a percentage of your total expenses.

But it’s not just a recap of your weekend spending with pretty graphics.

It also gives you the tools and information you need to start making better financial choices. And they’re all super-easy to use, and accessible right inside the app.

Disclosure: Clarity Money compensates us when you download the app using the links we provide.

If you want more money-management tools, check out eight of the best budgeting apps, which includes everything from Mint to You Need a Budget (YNAB).

Carson Kohler ([email protected]) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s all for automated savings.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

These 8 Apps Will Help You Save Money — No Matter How Tight Your Budget published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

0 notes

kennethherrerablog · 5 years

Text

13 Ways for Android Users to Bank Extra Cash This Week

Do you have an Android phone? Do you scoff at iPhones?

Well, good for you! Android phones are easier to customize, have expandable storage and generally cost less than iPhones.

A whopping 99% of smartphones these days run on one of two operating systems — Google’s Android or Apple’s iOS. In this tug-of-war between tech giants, I’m here to stick up for Android.

With an Android phone, you have nearly 3 million apps to choose from. (That’s more than Apple has, NOT THAT WE’RE COUNTING OR ANYTHING.)

That’s, um, a lot of choices. To help you out, here’s our list of the best Android apps that will put more money in your wallet.

1. Scratch Off A Free, Digital Ticket

Once you’ve watched some videos, rest your eyeballs by checking out a free app called Lucktastic.

Each day, it releases a new assortment of digital scratch-off tickets. Instant wins range from $1 to $10K. You can also earn tokens, enter contests and play games.

The app is free to download — and play.

2. Let This App Negotiate Your Cable and/or Internet Bill

On the phone with your cell phone or internet provider, trying to haggle a lower monthly bill?

Go ahead and hang up. (We know you’re probably listening to crappy music while sitting on hold, anyway.)

Download TrueBill, an app that’ll negotiate your bills, cancel unwanted subscriptions and refund your bank fees.

After downloading the app, create an account and link your bank account and/or credit cards. Turn on the bill negotiation and outage protection features. Boom. TrueBill is already searching for potential refunds — it might get you a refund even when you didn’t know an outage occurred.

On average, Truebill customers get $12 in credits off their cable bills each month.

The app will also remind you of all those sneaky subscriptions you’ve signed up for through the years, so you can cancel what you don’t use and reclaim your monthly budget.

Signing up and using the service is free, though there are some paid premium services that are totally optional — but could totally be worth it.

3. Stop Deleting Your Emails

It turns out deleting your emails could be costing you money. Intrigued?

One of our secret weapons is called Paribus — a tool that gets you money back for your online purchases. It’s free to sign up, and once you do, it will scan your email for any receipts. If it discovers you’ve purchased something from one of its monitored retailers, it will track the item’s price and help you get a refund when there’s a price drop.

Plus, if your guaranteed shipment shows up late, Paribus will help you get compensated.

Disclosure: Paribus compensates us when you sign up using the links we provide.

4. Get Rewards for Paying Your Bills on Time

Clarity Money* is a free app that helps you see, organize, and take control of your finances.

The way it works is simple. You just download the app, connect your existing accounts, and get ready to learn more about where your money’s disappearing to… and how to keep more of it.

But it’s not just a recap of your weekend spending with pretty graphics.

It also gives you the tools and information you need to start making better financial choices. And they’re all super-easy to use, and accessible right inside the app.

5. Squeeze Money from Your Shopping Receipts

Shopping in person? How vintage.

Ibotta is an easy-to-use cash-back app that’s partnered with more than 50 retailers, just about anywhere you’d do any kind of shopping.

Before heading to the store, search for items on your shopping list within the app. Strawberries? Check. An ear of corn? Check. Add each cash-back opportunity to your list in the app.

Then shop.

When you get home, snap a photo of your receipt and scan the items’ barcodes.

Bam. Cash back.

Some cash-back opportunities we’ve seen include:

25 cents back for any item

25 cents back on strawberries

50 cents back on frozen fruit snacks

$1 back on a box of tea

$5 back on a case of Shiner Bock beer

Notice a lot of those aren’t tied to a brand — just shop for the staples on your list, and earn cash back!

Ibotta is free to download. Plus, you’ll get a $10 sign-up bonus after uploading your first receipt.

6. Cash in on Your Old Stuff

Are your closets and shelves packed to the brim with stuff you never use — or even look at?

You can sell virtually anything on Letgo. This intuitive app lets you snap a photo and upload your item in less than 30 seconds. It removes a lot of the hassle of selling things online, and it’s 100% free to use.

7. Play Games, Save Money

Blast is a savings app for Android made by gamers for gamers. It allows you to save, earn and win cash for playing games.

It works with every game in the Google Play Store, as well as top PC games, including Counter Strike Global Offensive.

The app is free, with no hidden fees.

While you play, the app works in the background and transfers small sums from your checking account into a high-yield Blast savings account based on “triggers” you set — things like the number of opponents you defeat or enemy bases you destroy. You can earn extra cash by completing “missions” that allow you to test new games or take familiar games to the next level.

Your Blast savings account earns 1% interest, is FDIC-insured and is secured by bank-level encryption. You can withdraw your money anytime or just let your savings grow.

8. Play Free Scratch-offs — and Win Real Money

You know that feeling when you find a $20 bill hiding in the pocket of those jeans you wore last week? Yeah, that’s the feeling of a lucky day. The Lucky Day app is just like that. Have fun on your phone, just like you do anyway, and you might just pocket some extra dough.

Lucky, indeed.

You could win up to $10,000 playing digital scratch-off tickets or even a whopping $100,000 in the daily lotto. You’ll also have a lot of chances to win gift cards to cool places like Amazon, Walmart, Dunkin and Target.

It’s all free to play, with no in-app purchases. The company has already awarded more than $3 million in prizes to winners since 2014.

Seriously, you could have that “I just found money in my pocket” feeling today just for playing games and having fun on your phone.

9. Get Paid to Share Your Opinion

Surveys aren’t our favorite way to make money, but if you’re just vegging out on the couch — or shielding your eyes while being forced to watch “Final Fantasy 113” — why not click a couple buttons and earn a few bucks?

There are a bunch of paid survey sites out there, but one of the best we’ve found is InboxDollars. It offers several short, daily surveys, and you’ll get a $5 bonus for signing up. Plus, you get to earn cash, so you don’t have to worry about exchanging points. Check out how one college student pocketed $600 with InboxDollars. Her secret? Persistence.

10. Snag a Free $10 Walmart Gift Card

One of our favorite ways to save is with Ebates, a cash-back site that rewards you nearly every time you buy something online. For example, Ebates gives you 10% cash-back on online purchases at Walmart.

Plus you’ll get a free $10 gift card to Walmart for giving the site a try.

To earn your gift card:

Use the Ebates portal the next time you need to buy something. It’s connected to thousands of stores, including Walmart, Amazon and Target. You’ll need to make your first purchase through the site within 90 days and spend at least $25.

Your account will be credited with rewards points you can cash in for your $10 Walmart gift card.

11. Take a Walk Downtown

No extreme physical activity or pulled muscles required for this money-making trick. All you need to do is download the Shopkick app.

Once you sign up, the app pays you in “kicks” for walking into certain stores (including Walmart, Target, TJMaxx and more). You can redeem them for gift cards to a number of retailers, including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Sephora and Best Buy.

It pays you even more kicks for photos of receipts that include qualifying items you purchased in-store with a connected credit or debit card. You can also earn kicks for online purchases. You don’t have to do anything; your linked cards will automatically apply your kicks.

But don’t make the mistake of buying things you don’t need just for kicks, you know better than that.

12. Winter Is Coming. Save Your Acorns

So, how’s your Android phone doing so far? It’s working great, isn’t it? That’s what I thought.

Now let’s step up your savings game. Whaddaya say?

Open a micro-investing account with Acorns. Once you connect it to a debit or credit card, it rounds your purchases up to the nearest dollar and funnels your digital change into a savings and investment account.

Because the money comes out in increments of less than $1, you’re less likely to feel the impact in your bank account. (You can also set it up so it doesn’t round up every single purchase.)

When you sign up, you get a free $5 to start investing.

13. Bank Smarter to Earn Money on Your Savings

There’s no law that requires you to bank the old-fashioned way — at a brick-and-mortar bank with a crummy interest rate on your savings.

It’s time to move your money into the 21st century. An iOS app called Varo Money combines traditional banking tools with modern technology to help its customers become financially healthy.

Here’s the best part: Pair your Bank Account with a Varo Savings Account where you’ll earn 2.10% annual percentage yield. That’s 35 times — repeat, 35 times — the average savings account, based on a 0.06% average reported by CNN Money.

Varo goes easy on the fees, too. As long as you use one of its 55,000 ATMs across the world, you’ll never pay fees.

Additionally, you’ll pay no monthly service fees, no minimum balance fees, no foreign transaction fees and no cash replacement fees. You’ll just pay any fees charged by out-of-network ATMs and cash deposit fees if you deposit cash in-store through Green Dot.

Disclosure: Clarity Money compensates us when you download the app using the links we provide.

Mike Brassfield ([email protected]) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. He has owned both Android and Apple phones.

The Penny Hoarder Promise: We provide accurate, reliable information. Here’s why you can trust us and how we make money.

13 Ways for Android Users to Bank Extra Cash This Week published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

0 notes