When you’re living from paycheck to paycheck, the idea of saving money seems like a luxury you simply can’t afford. True, when finances are tough, finding extra money for anything seems like an impossibility. If you’re willing to take it a bit at a time and try a few unconventional things, though, you’ll find you might be able to set aside more money than you thought.
Open an Online Savings Account
You want to open an online savings account, because it will prevent you from accessing the money too easily later. Look for banks that offer a savings account with no minimum requirement and no monthly fees.
Start with saving $5. That isn’t too much to start with, but it’s an important first step. It gets you on the right track, and it creates a place to put your money as you start to save while you’re working on your top ranked online MBA program. Until that starts making money for you, this is a good place to start.
Sign up for Survey Sites
When you’re just getting by but want to set some money aside, you need to find some alternate forms of income that won’t take much time, but will produce a bit of income you can save. Start with survey sites like i-Say and MySurvey, which together can help you earn about $30 a month.
In general, surveys pay around $3 for about 20 minutes of your time. They are easily done while watching an online video, so you can cruise through them without much difficulty. Over a month’s time you’ll end up with about $15 to $30 that you can add to your online savings account.
Install an App
Media Insiders Panel is an app you can install on your smartphone that will pay you $5 a month. Install it on three devices, and you’ll have $15 you can put into your account. They will continue to pay you every month you leave the app on your device. The app tracks things like TV viewing, clicking, downloading, and sharing, providing the data to media companies for marketing purposes.
Sign up for Inbox Dollars
InboxDollars allows you to do little projects online, like read emails, take advantage of free offers, complete surveys, watch videos, or search the web using a special search feature. Each of these tasks pays you a few cents. The surveys will range $.50 to $10. If you were to complete one survey a day for a month, you would earn an additional $15, but this program has the opportunity to help you generate even more.
If you’re willing to put in more time and effort, there are other ways to bring in some extra cash. Reselling text books, for example, can help you generate some funds. These small amounts can add up. If you can set aside $100 per month in a 14% interest-bearing IRA, you could end up with $106,022 over the years. That’s something to think about and plan for.
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