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Sure, there are boundless opportunities to earn a passive income—from listing a spare room for rent to sharing ads on a blog to creating a product like an ebook or a T-shirt design that requires some initial elbow grease but that then continues to generate revenue. There’s no shortage of low-effort and little-involved money-making moves you can passively pursue in the depths of the abyss that is the internet.
However, there are also some seriously simple ways you can make more money without lifting a finger at all. Beyond winning the lottery, there’s no such thing as a get-rich-quick situation. But here are five sure bets for scaling your savings without really doing much of anything at all.
1. Earn cashback from shopping or dining.
Okay, so there is something you have to do here—and that’s shop or eat out at the stores and restaurants at which you’re already shopping and eating. There’s a plethora of resources out there that’ll earn you cashback when you inevitably spend some money anyway.
For example, platforms like Swagbucks, iBotta and Drop offer you rewards for shopping at select retailers. They all work a little differently. With Swagbucks, for example, you earn gift cards to your favorite stores by shopping online, as well as by answering surveys and watching videos. Meanwhile, iBotta offers you rewards for shopping through the platform, as well as in stores. And Drop offers rewards for shopping via the app.
Other apps like Fetch Rewards and Seated reward you for dining at your favorite foodie spots. With Fetch Rewards, you can earn points from any receipt from any restaurant, and redeem them for gift cards or even more rewards. With the Seated app, you can earn upwards of 30 percent every time you dine out or order takeout from a curation of over 1,500 restaurants and bars.
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2. Open a credit card with lucrative rewards.
Many credit cards also offer you rewards points each time you pay with the card. Some offer better points toward certain categories, like travel, than others. For example, one renowned rewards card is Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. This card offers you 5x points on travel purchases, 3x points on dining and 2x points on all other purchases. You also get 25 percent more value when you redeem points for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises—so 60,000 points will get you $750 toward travel.
Another example is the Discover it® Cash Back card with no annual fees. You can earn five percent cashback on purchases at various places (read: Amazon, supermarkets, restaurants, gas stations) and when you pay using PayPal, each quarter up to the quarterly maximum. You also earn an automatic and unlimited one percent cashback on all other purchases. You can redeem your cashback any time; your rewards never expire.
Of course, these aren’t the only credit cards with these kinds of rewards points, but they are two top-rated options.
3. Open a credit card with hefty sign-up bonuses.
Some credit cards also offer lucrative sign-up bonuses. For example, with the aforementioned Chase card, you can earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months after opening your account. Meanwhile, the Discover card has a Cashback Match program that offers you an unlimited dollar-for-dollar match of all the cashback you’ve earned at the end of your first year with the card.
Many credit card companies offer bonuses as incentives. Capital One Venture Rewards card is another example. You get a one-time bonus of 60,000 miles after spending $3,000 on purchases within your first three months, which equates to $600 in travel. Other cards waive the annual fee for the first year. And some offer a zero percent APR for a period of time, like the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards card, which ditches fees for 15 billing cycles and any balance transfers in the first 60 days.
4. Keep your money in a high-yield savings or money market account.
Instead of storing your savings in a standard savings account, stash it in a high-yield savings account. One example is Discover, which offers 0.40 percent APY—no monthly fees or account opening minimums. American Express is another option with a 0.40 percent APY with just a $1 minimum balance.
Alternatively, you may opt for a money market account, an interest-bearing account at a bank or financial institution. Tons of everyday banks offer them. With a Discover money market account, for example, you can earn 0.30 percent APY on balances under $100,000 or 0.35 percent APY on those $100,000 and over.
However, traditional money market accounts may have hefty minimum deposits or charge high fees. That’s why Q.ai, your go-to investing app, offers a Cash Reserve Kit. Q.ai partnered with APEX Clearing to give users a potentially income-earning professional-grade investment account that will accumulate interest over time without a minimum deposit or balance—or hidden transfer fees.
5. Invest your money so it grows over time.
Invest, invest, invest. Doing so will help your money earn even more money over time, simply by virtue of sitting in an investment account. In general, investments typically see 10 percent annual returns. While market volatility will inevitably impact your portfolio in the short term, over the long term, investing is a surefire way to grow your savings.
Q.ai makes it easy. Q.ai is a hands-free personal investing app that allows you to leverage the power of AI to invest like the pros. It doesn’t just pick stocks and ETFs. It manages your money for you with institutional-grade investment strategies. Better yet, it’s totally commission-free.
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