1. Earning Dollars from Our Saving Accounts monthly.
As what they would say, "don't place all your eggs in one nest", we do have several saving accounts to make sure we are not "placing all our eggs in one nest". When choosing a saving account, one of our criteria for choosing a certain saving account is that it should be a High Yield Savings account. For us, a high yield saving account is an account that yields/gains money monthly in between 4-10% interest with money deposited into a saving account.
With that in mind, I would like to share how awesome T-Mobile Money is. Although it is a checking account it has a high 4% yield on our saved money monthly. With a deposit of $1-$3000 you'll get 4% back to you. With that in mind, we transfer our monthly savings to their T-Mobile Money Checking Account (Update: T-Mobile do now offer savings account which offers: 1% per month interest). Just so, we have an idea what a 4% is for a $3000, that is $120. Who gives you free money in the amount of $120 for a saved $3000 monthly? When money goes over $3000, we start to transfer it to Ally bank which has a 0.50% yield for their savings account. And thus, the money continues to accumulate money now at 0.50% which is still higher compare to other banks. Just to be clear a $1000 on ally bank saving account will earn $5 monthly.
Let's just say: We started on $3000 deposit on T-Mobile Money Checking Account. Then, will be depositing $1000 per month into the account. Every $3000 reached, it will be transferred to Ally Bank every time, for the whole year of 2022. Please see below for the calculations.
If we have not placed our money into a savings account, let's say we just placed it inside a closet in our home, our money for the whole year saved will only be $15,000. But because we placed our money using this method, by February of the next year, our total money on both accounts will be: $16,371. Which our saved money has earned a total of: $1371. ($16,371 minus $15,000).
(T-Mobile Money is planning to offer 1% interest on their savings account which is better that Ally Savings Account. Status on T- Mobile Savings Account still pending. But I was told they are working on it)
Bonus Info: Ally Bank Saving Account lets you organize your savings, and you can open up to 10 buckets which you can allocate your savings. Like: Emergency Fund, Family Vacation, House Maintenance etc.
2. Earning Dollars from Our Monthly Grocery/Household Money.
Previously, we were using the credit card for grocery/household shopping while making sure we pay the whole amount before the month ends. We did not want to pay interest or else it defeats the purpose of earning money from it. Obviously, we used the credit card for the sole purpose of earning rewards by cash back. Due to this, we had to track religiously how much is the amount we were using on the card. It was time consuming and a hassle. Then, we came across Stash debit card, right away, we ditched the credit card and started using the Stash Debit card instead. Now, we don't have to be worried if we paid everything on time. This is a debit card after all.
Every month we deposit our grocery/household monthly money budget into Stash Debit card which by the way, we can easily electronically transfer into Stash Checking Account that has the debit card. We use the Stash Debit Card for all our grocery/household shopping. The same thing with the credit card, we still get benefits but instead of reward cash back, Stash will automatically invest our rewards into stocks. We thought that is a win-win for us.
Bonus Info: Because we use different cards for each expense category, we were able to stick to our monthly budget which is very convenient not to mention it saves and at the same time it gives us back money.
Another Bonus Info: With Stash Debit Card, whichever you shopped, the stock back would be the store where you used the card. Example: If you bought at Amazon, the stock back would be an amazon. How amazing is that?
3. Earning Dollars from Our Monthly Gas Money.
Again, we used to use the credit card to pay for our gas monthly. But we thought we rather use a debit card instead of credit card for the thought that at times, the reward cash back we got from the credit card, was used to additionally pay the balance instead. For us, using a debit card is really reasonable for our lifestyle. But mostly of the debit cards available at this time, do not have cash backs if they do, cash backs were only for certain stores.
We heard about Acorns and that they have a checking account with a debit card that gives rewards in the form of stocks back. Every time the debit card is used, a corresponding amount of stocks/ETF or index fund is invested into your personal investment portfolio. We thought we can deposit our monthly gas money into Acorns checking account and use the debit card for gas. It was one of the best decisions we made with regards to our finances.
Bonus Info: Acorns Debit Card is made of titanium metal.
4. Earning Money from Our Monthly Eating Out Money.
Currently, we are using T-Mobile Debit Card for our monthly eating out money. I did not mention earlier that in order to get the 4% gain from this checking account, it is a must that you have to have 10x successful transaction using the debit card per month. My husband is really diligent when it comes to counting these transactions. 10 transactions, no more no less. And it could be of any amount.
Monthly, we deposit a separate amount, which is, our monthly eating out budget into the checking account. We stay within our monthly budget and if there's a difference, we let it stay into the account so it can earn 4% monthly in addition to our savings inside this account.
5. Earning Dollars from Stocks/ETF/Index Fund.
I guess, everybody knows money that is invested into the stock market, may it be individual stocks, ETF or index fund can either earn or loss. But investing wisely by choosing companies who are well stablished and has a long history of gains every year, and has stood against the test of time like: apple, Microsoft, google, Pepsi, Mcdonalds and a lot more has surely proven that investing with them is indeed a wise decision. Select big individual company stocks as well as some index funds also have good returns by giving out dividends aside from the gains from increase of stocks price.
Three years ago, my husband and I decided to invest into stocks. We made a few mistakes along the way but nothing phenomenal. We lose some but earned more. Few of our investments have doubled in value while one or two have earned more than double. We made mistakes by selling a few of our stocks which we regret doing. Now, we are planning to never sell our stocks again. We are holding long term. Now, our money is earning money. There's ups and downs with investing with stocks, but the technique is to never let go of your stocks.
I learned from the Millionaires Stocks for Millennials book by Kevin Lung: the 5/20/80 rule when it comes to selling your stocks. Come worse to worst, I will follow this very wise advice. Very helpful. Here is a link to his website. I would like to grab this opportunity to extend my heartfelt appreciation to Investors Dad for sending me a copy of his latest book which at this time when I am writing this blog has not yet been published. It was a privileged and truly an honor to be able to read your latest book.
6. Dividends from Credit Unions Bank.
We have a couple of credit union bank accounts that we opened years ago and just recently. Both are earning dividends. What we earned is not that big, but we love the benefits of a what a credit union member gets. At least, our money is earning something. Credit unions offers several member benefits like free life insurance, monthly perks and a lot more.
7. Earning Money from Crytocurreny.
Yes, just like everyone else, we decided to ride the trend and invested into cryptocurrency. It is very volatile. I have yet to see our investment earning steadily and trending up. At times, our earnings are high then right the next day it would crashed down. But we will wait and see. We will hold steady for many many years with cryptocurrency. I do believe it could be the money in the future.
I hope you learned something from this blog that can help you today or tomorrow when you decide to put your money to work. My goal is that to share what I know and share this knowledge to anyone who is looking for ideas on how to make their money work for them.
I pray and wish for your success in growing your money like a money tree. And this is what I always pray that this money tree will eternally give you blessings to you and for your whole family.
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