Wouldn’t it be great if you could sit around in your pajamas all day binge watching Game of Thrones and money just magically appeared in your bank account? Of course it would be, but unfortunately, unless you have the winning lottery numbers, that’s not the way the world works.
But it would be great to figure out how to make real money from home. Making money in your spare time would help to build your emergency fund, pay off debt, and start building your retirement. And if you can make enough, you may even be able to replace your full-time income and experience more freedom.
So how do people actually make money from home? These apps are a great way to get started
Survey Mini
This app has a location tracker to determine where you shop and spend your free time. Then it offers you surveys for the places you visit. You won’t need to look through a list of survey options to figure out what you qualify for; the ones you can take will show right in the app for you.
Surveys aren’t always available for all stores and all times so you will need to keep checking. But when a survey is available and you offer your feedback, you’ll earn points. These points accumulate and once you reach 4,000 you can redeem them for coupons and gift cards to your favorite stores, restaurants, and movie theaters.
Ibotta
If you shop frequently, this is a great app for earning cash back. Just start browsing the categories for products you already use. The app will let you know if there is a cash back offer for these products. Then when you make a purchase of selected products, just upload your receipt to the app and earn the cash back. Once you reach a $20 balance, you can redeem your balance for cash or gift cards. *Note: some cash back offers require you to watch a short video about the product.
Achievement
If you’re already tracking your steps with a Fitbit, this app will give you cash back for reaching your daily step goal. It’s pretty simple. Walk. Earn points. Redeem points for cash. What could be easier? You don’t need a separate fitness app to get started, it will sync to most fitness apps that are probably already on your phone. Just sync your app to Achievement to start collecting your fitness data. You earn points for walking, running, posting fitness activities on social media, and tracking your meals. You can earn up to 80 points a day for fitness plus another 6 points for social media posting. Once you reach 10,000 points you earn $10.
Swagbucks offers a variety of activities you can do through either the app or their website to earn points. Then points are redeemed for cash and gift cards. There are hundreds of opportunities for earning points. In fact, one of the easiest ways to earn points online is to set Swagbucks as your browser then earn points just for searching the Web. There are also a variety of surveys, polls, and contests. You can also use the TV app and play videos in the background while you’re doing something else and easily earn points.
While none of these apps will allow you to retire, they will help you earn cash and gift cards for products you already shop for, saving you money that you can add to your savings account.
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