Top Ways to Have Your Money Work for You

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p><p id="2392"><b>High Yield Savings Account</b></p><figure id="bc78"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*EAJEZxvE-3IsXEq1"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@andretaissin?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Andre Taissin</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p id="4790">If you really want to be on the safe side you could also look for a high-yield savings account. One company that offers such is <a href="https://www.chime.com/">Chime</a> which offers .50% savings. It’s not going to be anything substantial enough for me to wet my beak but if you have a light stomach with investing, this is the least you should do!</p><p id="0cc0">Another company that does something similar is <a href="https://www.varomoney.com/">Varo</a>. If you have at least $5,000 in your account and deposit$ 1,000 a month you can make 3% APY. Otherwise, you will fall into the .20% bracket.</p><p id="c26a"><b>iBonds</b> I recently sold several EE Savings Bonds which were gifted to me when I was born by family members. These accumulated low interest but were safe and backed by the United States Government. You can probably still purchase these through your banks however they are a bit dated and not as common among the financial freedom/independence folks.</p><p id="4c4a">At the present age, you can get iBonds which are giving 7%! You can put in up to $10,000 dollars per person. If I wasn’t about to spend money on my wedding and had more liquid cash on hand, I would definitely put as much as I could into this as those rates are really good. You can look into this more through the <a href="https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/research/indepth/ibonds/res_ibonds.htm">Treasury Direct</a> website. Although the website looks dated, it is a .gov site and can be trusted.</p><p id="50a7"><b>Crypto</b></p><figure id="c68e"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*Cj2b82OHYCZHT4TT"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@quantitatives?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Quantitatives</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p id="22f4">Proven to be very volatile, crypto is a notable mention. Between the worth of crypto fluctuating there is a way to either get interest in crypto through Coinbase or you can stake your crypto through swaps. Staking Crypto could be a whole article in itself so for those interested I suggest doing your own lengthy research. An easier method is Coinbase, as it’s as simple as linking your bank account and purchasing then holding crypto through Coinbase wallet.</p><p id=

Options

"fc1a">On Coinbase, Cryptos like Ethereum 2 will yield 3.68% APR. USDC which is a stable coin and follows the US dollar yields .15% APY. Cosmos (atom) yields 5% APY. And Algoland (Algo) yields .45% APY.</p><p id="dee6">I’ll again add Crypto is very violative and is not insured, so again do your research here before starting. If you are new to Coinbase you can use <a href="https://coinbase.com/join/chandl_cey?src=ios-link">this</a> link and gain $10.00 in crypto when you trade up to$ 100.00 worth of crypto.</p><p id="9c09"><b>Real Estate</b></p><figure id="cfb8"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*6PdhFujyBAjFKtjL"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@reddalec?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Redd</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p id="4e18">Lastly, real estate can be a fantastic way to have your money work for yourself. I'll add that this one will probably be the most time-draining way, but can prove to be the most rewarding. In my example, we bought our house in 2018, and our estimated value in our house has gone up almost 10% since. That being said, we cannot call a leasing office when something breaks and we are responsible for finding fixes ourselves. This can be costly or require a good amount of time. With this, we have been paying a lot less with having a lot more space and back yard. We are also making additional payments a year to lower the loan by 7 years.</p><p id="ec4b">My plan in the next several years is to buy some rental properties and manage those properties and tenants. By doing this I hope to get closer to financial independence while also pursuing a life of my own design.</p><p id="3ba8">If you enjoy reading my articles and want to support them, along with the rest of the incredibly talented authors on Medium, please subscribe through the link below! <i>This article contains affiliate links to products. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.</i></p><div id="0718" class="link-block"> <a href="https://mileschandler.medium.com/membership"> <div> <div> <h2>Join Medium with my referral link - Miles Chandler</h2> <div><h3>As a Medium member, a portion of your membership fee goes to writers you read, and you get full access to every story…</h3></div> <div><p>mileschandler.medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*FAGjd5esBi14lZDE)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Several easy methods to have your money work for you require minimal to little time

*Interest rates may vary as the ones in this post were accurate during the time this was written. This is not financial advice. I write only for entertainment purposes, and my content is just for the average reader. Before making any investment, I urge you to do your own research!

5 years ago I started investing money in a Fidelity account and made some risky, but well-rewarded investments in the stock market. The first share I ever purchased was Amazon at around 1,000 dollars and everyone thought I was crazy for spending so much on one share. I then started investing in companies like Apple and Facebook. I looked for the companies that excited me and that I believed would excel in the future.

It was here that I saw the value of having my money work for me. While I was working on my career and spending time with friends and family, my money was working for me. I then read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki. As I have heard of the book before and thought it would be cliche, I very much enjoyed it and strongly encourage all to read it. It explains the concept of this article very well.

Exchange-Traded Funds A friend of mine then told me I should look into ETFs. Exchange-Traded Funds. These mimic and are very similar to Index funds and can be known to be safer than individual stocks. They essentially act as a portfolio with fractions of shares from multiple companies within them. You can find ETFs that follow industries or are more broad housing a multitude of companies. One of the first ETFs I purchased was $XLK which was a tech-specific ETF and has done very well for me.

One thing to note about investing in ETFs is to look at their expense ratio. This is what the fund charges to manage the holdings within the portfolio. For example, One of my favorite ETFs is $VOO and their expense ratio is .03% whereas $XLK (mentioned above) is .10%. In the grand scheme, this difference isn’t much, but I have seen some around .70% which is too high for my own liking.

High Yield Savings Account

If you really want to be on the safe side you could also look for a high-yield savings account. One company that offers such is Chime which offers .50% savings. It’s not going to be anything substantial enough for me to wet my beak but if you have a light stomach with investing, this is the least you should do!

Another company that does something similar is Varo. If you have at least $5,000 in your account and deposit $1,000 a month you can make 3% APY. Otherwise, you will fall into the .20% bracket.

iBonds I recently sold several EE Savings Bonds which were gifted to me when I was born by family members. These accumulated low interest but were safe and backed by the United States Government. You can probably still purchase these through your banks however they are a bit dated and not as common among the financial freedom/independence folks.

At the present age, you can get iBonds which are giving 7%! You can put in up to $10,000 dollars per person. If I wasn’t about to spend money on my wedding and had more liquid cash on hand, I would definitely put as much as I could into this as those rates are really good. You can look into this more through the Treasury Direct website. Although the website looks dated, it is a .gov site and can be trusted.

Crypto

Proven to be very volatile, crypto is a notable mention. Between the worth of crypto fluctuating there is a way to either get interest in crypto through Coinbase or you can stake your crypto through swaps. Staking Crypto could be a whole article in itself so for those interested I suggest doing your own lengthy research. An easier method is Coinbase, as it’s as simple as linking your bank account and purchasing then holding crypto through Coinbase wallet.

On Coinbase, Cryptos like Ethereum 2 will yield 3.68% APR. USDC which is a stable coin and follows the US dollar yields .15% APY. Cosmos (atom) yields 5% APY. And Algoland (Algo) yields .45% APY.

I’ll again add Crypto is very violative and is not insured, so again do your research here before starting. If you are new to Coinbase you can use this link and gain $10.00 in crypto when you trade up to $100.00 worth of crypto.

Real Estate

Lastly, real estate can be a fantastic way to have your money work for yourself. I'll add that this one will probably be the most time-draining way, but can prove to be the most rewarding. In my example, we bought our house in 2018, and our estimated value in our house has gone up almost 10% since. That being said, we cannot call a leasing office when something breaks and we are responsible for finding fixes ourselves. This can be costly or require a good amount of time. With this, we have been paying a lot less with having a lot more space and back yard. We are also making additional payments a year to lower the loan by 7 years.

My plan in the next several years is to buy some rental properties and manage those properties and tenants. By doing this I hope to get closer to financial independence while also pursuing a life of my own design.

If you enjoy reading my articles and want to support them, along with the rest of the incredibly talented authors on Medium, please subscribe through the link below! This article contains affiliate links to products. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.