Each year companies hand out thousands of dollars in complimentary cash and gift cards to promote their sites and products. We discovered two solid offers today.
Both of these require a modest upfront amount, but you should still be able to pocket $275.20 for roughly 20 minutes of effort. Plus, either one would be a nice way to kick off some savings for the year.
Note – both offers require an initial deposit, so if you can’t afford to have those funds tied up for a month or two, you might want to pass on these.
I also recommend directing unexpected windfalls like this into a retirement account or an emergency fund. It’s an effortless method to save, and if you take advantage of similar bonuses throughout the year, it can add up to a couple thousand dollars saved annually.
Here’s the breakdown…
1. Open a TradeKing Account & Get $200
The team at TradeKing is offering new U.S. customers a $200 reward when you open an Individual or Joint account and execute three stock trades. I like signup bonuses like this because they’re quick to complete and typically profitable. This one took me about 10 minutes to finish.
TradeKing charges $4.95 per trade, so after three trades I still walked away with $185.15 in extra cash. If you want to do this, follow these steps…
1. Open a new Individual or Joint account (IRAs, other tax-exempt, linked, or shared accounts are excluded). You must initially fund the account with $3,000.
2. Place at least three trades within 90 days of opening the account. I’m not planning to gamble on risky picks here; I don’t want to lose money. This isn’t investment advice, but I selected a conservative Vanguard mutual fund (VWINX). It’s traded roughly between $24.50 and $25.50 for the past year, so it’s steady and minimizes downside risk.
3. The $200 bonus will be credited to the account within 90 days. Nice! It’s not instant cash, but I’m fine with waiting. It’s all going into long-term savings.
2. Open an Account at MotifInvesting.com & Receive $100.00
Update: This offer has expired.
Motif Investing also ran a promotion where you could earn an extra $100.
Motif stands out from other brokers because instead of buying single stocks, you invest in a themed basket of stocks (usually 20–30 companies) from the same sector. It’s similar to a mutual fund, but motifs cover everything from Clean Energy to Republican Companies to Healthy and Tasty to Obamacare. Basically, any theme or trend you’re interested in can be found on Motif.
Motif charges $9.95 per trade, so after completing a qualifying trade you’d net $90.05 in bonus cash.
Here’s the signup link.
(Editor’s Note: The signup bonus is no longer active, but you can still get three months of Motif service for free.)
Need Extra Incentive?
Put this bonus cash into an IRA for retirement. I’m fond of LendingClub for peer-to-peer lending (I’m seeing about 14% annually), but any retirement vehicle will work.
If you can add $175 per month to this account for the next 30 years, and assume an average 10% annual return, you’d finish with roughly $364,054. It’s amazing what small opportunities can do over time — that’s why I’m a fan of capitalizing on small money-making chances.
Your turn: Did you grab these bonuses? Did you tuck the money into savings or spend it on something fun?
