You're probably thinking that I'm going to tell you about the next cashback website that's catching the internet's attention. Nope. This one is different, and the only one of its kind. Did you know you can earn free money online while shopping at your favorite online retailer, Amazon? Yup! I'll show you how…
Most offers online that claim to show you how to earn free money online are referring to taking surveys that pay you pennies on the dollar and aren't worth your time. Others allow you to shop online or even in person at your favorite stores, and for using that companies affiliate links or coupons, you get cash back in the form of rewards, points and real cash.
What if I told you that there is a way that allows you to shop on Amazon, and Amazon will deposit a percentage of your purchase right into an investment account for you? It exists, and here ill show you what it is and how to do it for free. I'm going to teach you how to earn free money online while shopping on Amazon, and have that money automatically invested for you without any effort.
Earn Free Money Online: How It Works
The process is actually pretty simple. If you're familiar with affiliate marketing or the concept of how cashback websites work, then this will be a breeze to understand. Affiliate marketing is a marketing strategy that companies use that allows their customers to refer other customers to that companies business through an affiliate link online. When a referred customer uses the current customer's affiliate link to make a purchase, the current customer receives a small commission on the sale.
This is essentially how a cashback website operates. While this strategy I'm going to teach you isn't exactly a cashback website, the concept is similar, so stay with me.
Most cash back websites require you to open a free account with them to begin shopping for cash back. When you log into your account with the cashback website, you then click on the link that takes you to your preferred place to shop inside your account, which then takes you directly to that companies website.
Any purchases made will result in the cashback company getting a commission from the retailer for referring you to their site. What this cashback website does is simply passes on a portion of that commission to you in the form of points, rewards, gift cards and often times cash.
Cash back in the form of investments
As I said, the process is pretty much the same as stated above with this strategy. The difference? Rather than a cashback website passing on their affiliate commissions earnings to you, the company you shopped at deposits a percentage of your purchase into an investment account for you. Why hasn't anyone thought about this before?!
The reason its more beneficial to receive your cashback in the form of an investment is because it is a more responsible use of money. Otherwise, you'd just take that extra cash and spend it on something of no value. Imagine how much money you'd have saved up if you took all the discounts and cash back offers you ever received over your lifetime, and just saved it in a basic savings account. Not even invest it, just set it aside for safe keeping. Before you know it you'd have a hefty nest egg.
Now what if you had invested that money over the years and taken advantage of the stock market average return of 7% (average return from 1950 to 2009, pretty conservative). You'd be set for retirement at an early age!
What if you don't know how to invest?
To take this concept even further, it works perfectly for the average consumer who has never invested a penny in their lives, or even heard of the stock market for that matter. Why? Through a series of a few quick questions, the company that offers these benefits sets up a diversified portfolio for you based on your response to the questions. They automatically invest it for you, and you can withdraw it any time you want.
This type of investment strategy is often referred to a “robo-advisor”. This is simply an investing company that, through a series of easy to answer questions, designs a well diversified investment portfolio for you and manages the investment proportions for you automatically. An example of an “aggressive” investment portfolio with Acorns is shown below.
So, who offers this unique opportunity?
I thought you'd never ask. The company started as a small investment app that had a goal of helping those with little extra money, invest in the stock market in an easy to understand way.
They are the founders of the idea that allows you to link your debit card or bank account to their investing app, and invest your spare change from every purchase into your diversified portfolio. Introducing…the Acorns Investment App.
Acorns began as an app that would round up your small gas station snack purchase up to the next dollar, and invests the spare change for you. This idea allowed the average Joe to begin investing with little change, and hardly feeling any tightening in their budget.
As Acorns grew in popularity and clientele, they began partnering with some of the most well-known retailers online offering cashback opportunities just like a cashback or discount website would. The difference? Their partner companies will deposit the cashback to your Acorns investment account rather than giving you a discount in the form of points, rewards, gift cards or cash.
One of their biggest partners and recently added online retailers is the internets largest retailer, Amazon. So how do you earn free cashback online while shopping on Amazon? Simply begin your Amazon shopping spree through the Acorns investment app, and start building your investment portfolio.
Acorns “Found Money”
This concept of receiving cashback deposited into your Acorns investment account is called “Found Money” on Acorns. By opening your investment account with Acorns, you simply click the “found money” tab to begin your late night shopping spree and select your favorite retailer, in this case, Amazon, and begin investing in the form of shopping for your favorite items!
When I first opened up my Acorns investment account, at the time I had been researching insurance for identity fraud protection. One of Acorns biggest partners is LifeLock, a world class identity fraud insurance company. I purchased a basic identity fraud protection policy with LifeLock, and LifeLock in return deposited $25 of “Found Money” into my Acorns investment account.
This same concept of Found Money now applies to most major categories and departments on Amazon.
The future of “Found Money”
Found Money seems to be catching on quick with the rapidly growing company, Acorns. Acorns has plans in the near future for an Acorns “Spend” account. This is simply a checking account that has a unique debit card that will allow you to take advantage of “Found Money” opportunities while shopping at retail stores in person.
Not only can you earn cash back in the form of investments by shopping online, but here in the near future you will be able to use Acorns “Spend” checking account to get “Found Money” investments when shopping in person. By opening an Acorns investment account, you may have an opportunity as well to be one of the first to participate in their upcoming product launch.
What else can you do with an Acorns account?
While our main point of discussion is the unique opportunity that Acorns “Found Money” offers, Acorns also has a few other unique opportunities in the investment industry. Recently, Acorns launched the Acorns “Later” account, which is an IRA investment account that allows one to simply set their retirement savings on autopilot. Set up automatic transfers with as little as $10 every month or week, and add to your investment and retirement portfolio.
There are multiple “Robo Advisor” apps out there that allow one to invest money with little effort, while keeping a diversified portfolio, but Acorns is unique with the added benefits offered like investing your spare change (aka “Round-Ups”), found money, Acorns Later account, and Acorns Spend accounts.
Like any other robo-advisor app out there, they will diversify your portfolio of investments automatically for you after answering a series of easy and quick questions. The rest is simply “set it and forget it”!
Want $5 for free with your Acorns account?
By setting up your Acorns account through our unique affiliate link here, Acorns will give you $5 for free once you open up your account and fund your first investment with as little as a few bucks! Easiest $5 bucks in 5 minutes you could make (that equates to $60 per hour, not bad).
I’ve often wondered whether there was really a thing as earning “free money” – we spend time at work for money, we spend money using online programs, we spend money on investments – do you think the Acorns program would be suitable for someone like me who really has little understanding of investing and online finance?
Thanks!
Absolutely. They have set up their investing platform very simply so that even those with no previous experience can invest their money properly. Through a series of simple questions, they put together a diversified portfolio of investments for you. This is exactly what a a financial adviser would do, or a well informed person who directs their own investments.
I’d even say that if you don’t have any investment knowledge or experience, Acorns is where you should start. Along with doing all the hard work for you, they also give you access to free content on the basics of investing to help train and educate you on the basics. Great question, thanks for reading! Hope this helps.
Hello Carmon,
Are there any finance fees involved? Also, do you have to make sure a certain amount is deposited each month? I guess I am trying to figure out how the money is routed to your Acorn account. Oh another question, How do you get to the money should you decide you want it? Thanks for your help on this. I am very interested.
Hi Angela, great questions! Acorns charges $1 per month for accounts under $1,000,000 in value, and after they reach $1,000,000 balance then its 0.25% per month. There are no minimum requirements to deposit each month, however your “round ups” (the invested change) aren’t invested until they reach totals of $5. So you may make multiple purchases throughout the week and each purchase is rounded up to the next whole dollar, and that change is then set aside to be invested. Once that extra change reaches at least $5 its automatically invested for you.
The spare change that is invested is just deducted from your bank account and routed to your Acorns account. Should you decide to withdraw the money, all you have to do is select the “withdraw” option within the Acorns app, and they will send the money to the designated bank account. Hope this helps, awesome questions, thanks for reading!
Thank you for this information. I have been interested in investing for a long time but I’ve always been too scared to make a mistake as I don’t know a lot about how to do that. This seems like a safe way to go. If I ever decided to invest some additional funds of my own into my Acorn account would they let me do that?
Great question! Yes you can. You can set up recurring deposits to your Acorns account on a regular basis. In fact, i’d suggest you also do that if you are able to.