1) Earn some real interest on your savings.
If you are still sitting using a “traditional” savings account that is paying you 0.5% on your savings, you are leaving a lot of cash on the table. For every $3,000 in savings, you could easily be earning an extra $100 a year in interest. I like Capital One 360 (formerly ING Direct) the best as an online bank that offers the total package. They have great rates, but there are a bunch of banks out there with great rates – go find one and take your spouse out on a nice date with the extra money!
As if the great rates weren’t enough, some of them offer sign-up bonuses…
2) Earn some quick cash for signing up for accounts.
Capital One 360 – $25 bonus for opening a checking or savings account with at least $250. They have no fees, no minimum balances, and you can read 10 more reasons why I love them for more.
Virtual Bank – They give a nice $20 bonus for opening an account. I don’t like them as much as ING Direct, but it is hard to pass up free money 😉 . Again, email me if you are interested.
Ebates – This is a really cool service that I have been enjoying. Basically, anytime you make a purchase online you just go through their site and you will get a % of the purchase price as cash back. The %’s range from 1% to 26%. Oh, and of course they give you a bonus for signing up – it ranges from $5-$10.
3) Giveaway every Friday
ChristianPF has been giving away books, gift cards, software, magazine subscriptions, and all kinds of other fun stuff each and every Friday. All you have to do to be entered into the giveaway is leave a comment in the ChristianPF Forums. If you leave a comment once a week, you will always be entered to win. To see what has been given away so far, you can click here. Make sure you subscribe via email or RSS to make sure you always hear about the giveaway!
4) Save a lot of money
These are a few articles I have written that I guarantee will help you save or make some money. Please send me an email if you don’t find something new or useful in any of these. Deal?
16 Ways to save money by NOT being “normal” – A lot of these are things I have done that have saved me a lot of cash.
7 Steps to sell your stuff on eBay – These are the steps I take to clean out junk around the house and turn it into decent cash, if you are a bit more ambitious you can even turn this into an eBay business.
15 ways to cut your expenses – These are a bunch of things that I have done to trim my monthly expenses. I should add up how much I have saved as a result of doing these. It is easily many hundreds of dollars each month.
5 ways to get a deal on eBay – If you don’t at least browse eBay prices before buying something, you should. I have saved a ton of money by purchasing with them. I remember a NEW Component cable I bought for $4.00 (+ $3.99 shipping) from eBay, that BestBuy was selling for over $25. It was the exact same cable. They are always in the running for the lowest price on any given item that I buy online. These are 5 things I do to make sure I get a good deal.
15 quick ways to make money – I asked a bunch of people how they would come up with $200 if they needed it in 2 weeks. It is kind of interesting to see some of their ways for coming up with quick cash.
5) Lower your stock trade commissions
If you are doing any investing and you are paying anything for your trades, you are probably paying too much. Zecco.com has been offering free stock trades for a couple of years now. I have an account with them and with Sharebuilder. Sharebuilder is great for beginning investors who just want to start with $50 here or there. They aren’t free like Zecco, but they are one of the few that allows you to purchase fractional shares. Oh, and they have a $25 bonus for new investors (email me for a referral email).
Either way, I have had a good experience with both of them so far. Both of them will save you a lot of money over traditional brokers.
