7 Simple Money Moves That You Can Make Today

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man putting money into bank investment

Want some practical ideas on improving your financial situation this year? Well, here are seven things you can do to improve your finances; most of these you can start in under 5 minutes.

1. Invest in Real Estate (Affordably)

Owning and renting out real estate can be a great way to make money. However, purchasing a home can be costly since you usually need about 20% down plus closing costs to buy a rental home.

But with Fundrise, you can start investing in real estate for just $10.

Fundrise is a crowdfunded real estate investing company. It uses your money (and money from others) to purchase and manage large-scale rental properties and gives you a cut of the profits.

2. Make More Money Today

One of the best things you can do to increase how much you can invest is to find ways to increase your income. Here are a couple of ways that you can do that starting today:

Survey Junkie will pay you for taking surveys in your spare time. They have over 10,000,000 members, and this company is cool because they will pay you instantly with cash via PayPal.

Swagbucks will pay you for everyday tasks like searching the internet and shopping online.

They have a Trustpilot rating of 4.2/5 and have paid out over $574,000,000 to its members.

3. Teach Your Kids About Money

Do you have kids? Do you want them to be good with money? There are several apps out there that can help you do this. One that I really like is called Greenlight. It is not only an app but it comes with a physical debit card.

It has a 4.8 out of 5 rating in the App Store and has helped families save over $198 million!

You can Send money instantly, manage chores and allowances, approve investments, and more.

Sign up for a one month trial today!

4. Get Life Insurance

Protecting your loved ones with life insurance is a smart money move that most people should consider.

Unfortunately, signing up for life insurance can seem like a hassle because no two companies are exactly alike. There are different rules and rates for every policy and company, which can make life insurance seem confusing.

Luckily, Policy Genius makes the process simple as it will give you quotes from several providers so that you can get the best price.

5. Invest in Real Estate Bonds

Real estate bonds can provide a higher yield than traditional bond investments. Bond index funds invest in large corporations and government bonds.

Worthy Bonds lets you invest small amounts of money and earn 7% per year with a minimum $10 investment. These loans are collateral-backed; however, there is risk.

The additional risk is why this investing option yields higher than traditional bonds.

6. Make More Interest on Your Savings

Want to make more money on your savings? Online banks offer a much higher rate than traditional banks. This is because they don’t have all the overhead of a regular bank.

For instance, right now CIT Bank is paying 4.65% on its Savings Connect account, which is 10X the national average.

The best part is that it is a $100 minimum to open.

7. Use A Free Budgeting app

Want an easy way to stay on track with your finances? Use a free budgeting app like Empower, where you can see all your accounts in one place.

With so many different ways to budget, I have found that using this app saves me so much time because it automatically categorizes every transaction.

It is also great because it shows me my net worth in real-time when I open the app.

Not only that, it has free investment tools that I use to make sure we are on track for our investing and retirement goals.

If you want to make 2024 your best financial year ever, download Empower today.

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40 Comments

  1. Thanks Deacon! These tips are very helpful! 🙂

  2. What’s the website? I would like to make some extra cash.

    1. Use the links in this post to help you out. We also have lots of other posts on this site about ways you can make money. 🙂

    1. We have lots of ways to make money on our website. Check them out. I hope you find something that works for you!

  3. Brian Vocana says:

    This is how you become wealthy:
    1) Spend less than you make.
    2) Stay out of debt.
    3) Invest your money in mutual funds, not savings accounts.
    It really is that easy. Most of the tips in this article will help you save money for a Christmas fund, not become wealthy.

    1. Where do you invest in mutual funds? What are some names of mutual funds that pay high interest rates?

  4. Is there a charge for this subscription?

    1. If you’re talking about the email subscription, no. It’s free!

  5. This article seems to be targeted towards those who are new to building wealth. You can’t invest in crowd funded real estate unless you are an accredited investor. If you are an accredited investor, I highly doubt you are reading articles like this one. So, you should probably remove this as an option. Non accredited investors can only invest in ETFs based on crowdfunding, which is not the same thing

    1. Thanks for the suggestion. We’ll consider at least separating it so it makes more sense.

  6. I like my Ally savings account.There’s no minimum, and currently 1.25% APR. They also have CD’s providing up to 2.25% interest.

    1. We really like Ally too!

    2. The bank in my hometown in Tennessee, called Southeast Bank, is paying 2.51% on 60 month CD’s. Another, called First Bank of Tennessee, is paying the same. Savings sucks at .15%.

    3. Margaret Elder says:

      Try Navy Federal. They give 2.96% for CD’s.

  7. Check your calculator. $400 a month for 40 years at 10% interest is $2.1 million.

    1. Either way, it’s still a high amount. 😉

    2. Is that legit…to just let $400 sit in an account without touching it? How much would it be after 5 years, and for which company?

      1. It depends on where you keep the money.

      2. You’ve got to put $400 in the account “per month” for 40 years, not just once!

      3. You can find a place to earn 10% interest? If you know where I can get a guaranteed 10%, I’m all ears, sir.

      4. Brian Vocana says:

        Look at mutual funds.

      5. Leslie M. says:

        What about ETF’s ?

    3. M.A, Evans says:

      Where can one get 10% interest?

      1. Well, I believe the idea is to invest in the stock market, as the post suggests. You can make that much and sometimes more. Of course, there is risk associated with investing in the stock market, but it is possible to have good returns.

  8. Jill Gregory says:

    Can you give more information?

  9. Harry McRae says:

    I like investing, but I think that if you really want to save money, you have to trade commission free on Robinhood (link below in website). Saving is really important because how can you invest without first knowing how to save? Fico Score? Well, balance is usually the name of the game!

    1. Robinhood has many limitations. For example, you’ll never be able to really day trade or use leverage with Robinhood. I’d rather pay a small commission and be able to maximize my profits with a traditional broker than save a few bucks on every trade. Though it adds up, profits issuing margin far outweigh commissions (depending on how much you wtcan trading with of course)

    2. As for me, my dollars will always go to investing rather than savings. Just buying an ETF that tracks the S and P will get you 150 times the returns of a savings account (based on the history of the stock market since 1920).

      Just open a Vanguard account and buy VOO, commission free.

      1. Laura Sue says:

        Can you give me more advice on all that?

      2. You can create an account on Vanguard. The easiest mutual funds to use there are their targeted retirement date funds. You find one that’s tied to when you think you might retire, and they rebalance it for you. But, you should first get together $5000 to avoid fees. For that, good places to look are Credit Unions, rather than banks. Mine lets you open a Roth IRA for as little as $25.

      3. There are lots of different, positive things you can do to increase wealth and grow your money. What the right thing is for each person may differ, depending on each person’s individual circumstances. The biggest step is usually just getting started.

    3. If you hardly trade, the problem is solved. Vanguard is an industry leader in low cost index funds.

      1. There are many ways to invest, of course. Part of the point is simply to get started.

  10. Eric Starks says:

    I really need to get into something that is in supply and demand. I also need to be more careful about myself indeed. A man should always keep a plan b just in case plan a doesn’t work for him.

  11. Jacob Sartin says:

    I made connection with a personal business wellness company from here, and now I’m building my own business from home because of the connection of this link. It’s given me extra money each month and I’ve paid off 4 of my credit cards. Financial freedom is on the way…Thank you.

  12. Gail Johnson says:

    I want to earn extra money.

    1. That is great to hear. There are several ways you can make extra money like driving for Lyft, taking surveys online, etc. Just pick the one that works best for you and will work with your schedule.

  13. Well, “…to find an accountability partner that will cheer you on, keep you on task, and get on your case a bit if you drop the ball”.
    This is not my case. 🙂 I already have one who doesn’t care about savings…