Investing
131). Get A Savings Account With A Higher Yield (1.85 percent) – The big banks have tiny interest rates for your savings account. If you’re with Chase, BOA, Wells Fargo, Citi, etc. you’re probably getting 0.1 percent or close.
The current best interest rate on the market is CIT Bank with 1.85 percent interest.
Building a CD Ladder requires buying CDs (certificates of deposits) from banks in certain increments so that you can earn a higher return on your money. CDs are offered by banks and since they are a low risk investment they also yield a low return. This is a good option for the risk averse.
For example, what you do if you want a five-year CD ladder is you do the following. Look how the rates rise over different time periods (these are estimated):
- 1 Year CD – 2.50%
- 2 Year CD – 2.90%
- 3 Year CD – 3.05%
- 4 Year CD – 3.10%
- 5 Year CD – 3.15%
If building a CD Ladder sounds complicated, you can also stick to a traditional high yield savings account or money market fund. While the returns aren’t as amazing as other things on this list, it’s better than nothing, and it’s truly passive income!
We recommend building a CD Ladder at CIT Bank because they have one of the best CD products available. High rates and even a penalty-free CD option. Check out CIT Bank here.
Check out these great deals on the best high yield CDs on our full list of the best CD rates that get updated daily.
132). Vanguard – Vanguard has the cheapest funds. If you are comfortable investing yourself, I advocate for investing in retirement funds or DIY a replication of retirement fund. You’ll need to rebalance your holdings dependent on how the market performs. If you’re ok with potentially selling at a loss occasionally to rebalance and you won’t put it off, you should take this route. You should NOT be reacting to market fluctuations. There have been studies shown that time in the market beats timing the market by a wide margin.
133). Ellevest – Some people want a Robo-advisor to manage their portfolio for them because it’s easy. If you’re starting out and don’t have a lot to invest outside of retirement accounts, you should consider this if you’re not comfortable investing yourself. Most Robo-advisors charge only a .25% management fee. That’s $25/year for every $10,000 you have in the account. I like Ellevest because they ask you about your financial goals in life and recommend accordingly. They also ask if you’re going to have any kids and take that into account for 9 months of saved up leave. They don’t have a minimum so you can get invested with $0.
134). Stash (free $5 Signup bonus) – Stash is a medium-point between Vanguard and Ellevest. It recommends securities and funds, but ultimately you pick what you want to invest in. If this sounds too overwhelming, go with a Robo-advisor like Ellevest. If you don’t need someone to ask about your preferences, choose Vanguard. It’s worth signing up to take a look though. You can skip the bank account info section and still play around with the app.
135). Robinhood – Sign up through a friends referral link (I don’t have one, go to another blogger’s referral link) and you can get a free share of stock. Robinhood has free trades, so if you’re considering dabbling in the stock market for fun, this is the best app.
**Check with your compliance department for the list of brokers you are allowed to invest with. Some companies only allow specific brokers.
136). Investing in rental properties – Real estate has some great tax qualities due to its interest deductible, depreciation, and 1031 exchanges (deferral of capital gains). If you’re looking to diversify your portfolio and not have it all in index funds, you might want to think about investing in rental properties. You need to think about whether you want to hire a property manager or be on hand to fix things and respond to tenant requests. Always be conservative and safe.
137). FundRise – If you don’t want to own physical property because you think it might be a hassle or you don’t have enough for a rental down payment, you can always invest in crowdfunded real estate online. Check out Fundrise, where you only need a minimum of $500 to invest. From 2014 to 2017, the portfolios have returned 8.75 percent to 12.42 percent.
138). Dividend Income — Dividend income is money paid to shareholders of stocks in the form of cash in your bank account. Dividend-paying stocks are especially enticing for those wanting to make a living with passive income, as they will get payouts each quarter or so. Even Warren Buffet historically is a fan of dividend-paying stocks.
If you are going to go this route, make sure that you educate yourself and pick solid stocks so that you can depend on for dividend income for years to come.
If you don’t have an investment account, check out Ally Invest because trades are as low as $3.95.
This low fee is awesome because most brokers charge around $10 per stock trade. Check out our Ally Invest review here.
139). Peer-to-Peer Lending — Peer-to-peer lending is when you loan other people money who don’t qualify for traditional financing. With investment returns in the 3-8% range, investing money with a company like Lending Club can get you much higher income results than a typical savings or money market account.
If you are looking for a lower risk option, check out Worthy. They offer $10 bonds and pay a 5% return.One unique thing about them is that your money is liquid, so you can take it out at anytime.
This means if for some reason you need your money back, you are able to access it quickly and easily.
140). Crypto Mining – Before we delve into ASICs and GPUs, you should know that this is extremely risky. So many people told me crypto mining was an insane return and I simply replied,”That’s only if the current market price stays where it’s at right?”. A lot of those people are now sitting underwater due to the largest market cap cryptos crashing in the past few months.
141). Masternode Ownership – In crypto, there are masternodes you can own that produce a return, almost like a dividend. Some are structured to produce returns if you own a minimum number of units and others allow you to pool. If you have money you can burn and are willing to spend a lot of time researching, you can look into it. I won’t link the website that tracks the ROI of masternodes.